Honours were shared evenly at Derwent Park on Easter Sunday where a very good crowd was served up a cracking game of football between the two Cumbrian Ladies teams, Workington Reds and Carlisle United.
The visitors had outplayed their hosts in the first half and had deserved to hit the dressing rooms at half-time with a one goal advantage.
But a second half resurgence from the Reds Ladies and a goal for Morgan McGrady on the hour mark was enough to ensure that both teams finished the day with something to show for their efforts.
The game was played less than 48 hours after Derwent Park had staged Workington Town’s game against the Crusaders in the Betfred League One.
The hard work of the volunteers who gave their time up to help had seen the pitch remarked and cut, goals erected, stadium cleaned and shelves restocked ready for what ended up being a highly successful day for both clubs.
The Ladies entertained their largest group of Match Day sponsors thanks to a group of 28 supporters coming together to remember their absent friends; Barry Fisher and Barry McGuirk and the Myers and Bowman Fanzone hosted live entertainment from local band Solomon after the game and into the early evening.
Carlisle had taken an early lead on seven minutes from a corner resulting from a seemingly harsh free kick from a Reds counter attack.
The ball was delivered from the right and was met by a Carlisle attacker in the Reds area who advanced the ball forward speculatively, only to find the feet of the supporting Charlotte Murray who turned the ball in to take the lead.
Buoyed by the wind behind them, Carlisle took the initiative and applied serious pressure to the Reds defensive back line of Sophie Birkett, Naomi Foster, Alice Kemp and Natalie Hooper, but they stood firm.
Carlisle could only manage to create the odd half chance which was comfortably collected by the positionally astute Reds Keepe; Laura Miller, who had also pulled of a great save as she turned a shot around the corner to deny the visitors extending their lead.
The Reds created the odd promising chances of their own but were unable to execute the final link to force any real pressure. The half ended with the visitors holding a deserved single goal lead and were the team that were most happy with their performance in the first half.
However, the Reds Ladies had taken the half-time break to re-focus and address areas to improve in and came out a transformed team.
The energy , drive and desire shown seven days earlier against Preston had returned and with that came fresh focus. The Ladies built good passages of play through intelligent connections and fought for every loose ball in their attempt to get back into the game.
Carlisle were feeling the pressure and after 15 minutes, McGrady had drawn the Reds level with her 8th goal of the season. She collected the ball and slotted home passed the outstretch arm of the Carlisle keeper, Chelsea Norris.
The Reds spirits were now lifted and earlier indecision had been replaced with drive and belief. Links from the middle trio of Chloe Henderson, Hannah Ridgewell and Sophie Douglas were starting to find Emi Rudd and McGrady in attacking areas.
They in turn were feeding the keen running of Kayce Rodgers up front which all combined to create three decent chances on the Carlisle goal. Rudd had a freekick centrally on the edge of the area which was delivered on target but defended well by the visitors as they battled to stay in the game.
As the game entered the last five minutes, a late surge from Carlisle saw them threatening to take the lead again, but Miller was there to save.
McGrady looked to have sealed the win for the home side late on, when a corner from the right looked to have beaten Norris and found the back of the net, but it had actually skimmed over the cross bar to safety.
The game finished level and points were shared which was probably a fair result for either team owning one half of football.
Hannah Ridgewell was awarded Player of the Game for the Reds by Carlisle and Laura Miller was selected as the Sponsors Player of the Game.
Team: Laura Miller, Sophie Birkett, Naomi Foster, Alice Kemp, Natalie Hooper, Hannah Ridgewell, Sophie Douglas, Emi Rudd, Chloe Henderson, Morgan McGrady, Hannah Geen, Kayce Rodgers, Keeley Holliday, Sydney Bragg, Zara Sandelands, Leah Cottier.
