Workington Reds moved to second in NPL West after they scored a hard-fought 1-0 win at Newcastle Town.
It completed a good day for the West Cumbrians as leaders Macclesfield were held 1-1 at Colne and Leek Town, who had been second, were beaten 2-0 at home by Runcorn Linnets.
This wasn’t the same free-flowing Reds who had played exceptionally well the previous week to beat 1874 Northwich at Borough Park.
Newcastle were a tough, physical side who liked to get the ball forward into the TReds box and had a dangerous long throw-in which tested the Workington defenders.
The only goal of the game came as early as the second minute when Bobby Carroll fired a ball across the Newcastle net and Lewis Reilly, last week’s match-winner was there to steer home.
Chances were few and far between for the Reds after that and as the game progressed they had to do their best work in defence.
Afterwards manager Danny Grainger said: “It was a poor game but it was a tough one for us and I thought the players were all at it and stood up to the challenges that we knew Newcastle would offer.
“We got our goal, but weren’t able to play the kind of football we like to. This was a different kind of game and in the end it was down to us doing our jobs defensively.
“I was delighted with how they went about it, blocking and putting bodies on the line to defend.
“That was the only result I was interested in today, not what Macclesfield and Leek have done. Once we start bothering about them and not focusing on our own performance is when we will miss out.”
Reds did finish the game with ten men as defender Sam Smith was sent-off at the start of time added on after being shown a second yellow card.
