Workington Reds’ golden oldies showed the way as the Reds picked up three precious Boxing Day points.
Dan Wordsworth celebrated his 300th appearance for the club with the crucial second goal in a 3-0 home win over Kidsgrove Athletic.
Scott Allison, who had previously completed 300 games for the Borough Park club, supplied the other two goals.
To complete the collection skipper Conor Tinnion, the third member of the 300-plus club pulled the strings in mid-field and claimed two assists.
They were the main contributors to what in essence was an excellent all-round team performance from Danny Grainger’s men.
For at the other end of the spectrum three youngsters shone in a make-shift back four which had Wordsworth as the focal point.
Niall Moran, Charlie Birch and Keelan Leslie have limited first team experience between them but they performed with great credit to limit Kidsgrove’s opportunities.
The win edged Reds into third place in the table ahead of the January 2 test at Clitheroe, a side who won at Borough Park early in the season.
Kidsgrove were potentially dangerous opponents, having moved impressively up to sixth in the table just six points behind the Cumbrians.
But the only time that Jim Atkinson had to make a save came late in the game when he got down well to hold a snap shot from inside the area by Will Saxon.
In fact opportunities for both sides were scarce in the first half. The one real opportunity came for Reds early on when keeper Sam Booth dropped a cross and Lewis Riley, arriving late, just stabbed wide.
The breakthrough goal came on 32 minutes when a fine counter attack down the left saw Tinnion slide the ball into the box.
Allison took a touch, stepped round the defender and then produced a fine finish into the bottom corner and Reds were on their way.
The second goal was always going to be crucial and it came two minutes after the break.
Tinnion lifted in a free kick from the right and Wordsworth rose ahead of the keeper to nod over him into the net.
There were opportunities to add to that with Allison and Dav Symington going closest.
But the game was wrapped-up on 79 minutes when substitute Steve Rigg fed Allison down the middle and he went on to finish with aplomb.
A very satisfactory afternoon was completed for Grainger when he was able to send on 16-year-old Lewis Moore for the last few minutes.
“He’s a player I think a lot of. He’s worked hard training with the first team and I told him he’d earned his appearance at the end.
“Overall I thought they were all fantastic against a good Kidsgrove side.
“We’ve had players missing and we had to move things around but I thought everyone did their job and after a tight first-half I thought we were really deserving winners.
“It keeps our run going and now we have a week to prepare for what will be another tough game at Clitheroe.”
