In circumstances typical of grassroots football around the festive season, injuries, illness and unavailability, meant that only 11 Workington Reds Ladies were able to travel down the M6 to face Penwortham.
However, those that were able to represent the club, did so with great discipline and heart and this became the foundation that the one goal victory was built from.
Eager pressing, commitment to retain shape and a resolve to brush the knocks off and carry on, resulted in the visitors controlling the vast majority of the game and limiting their opponents to speculative efforts from outside of the area.
The enforced reshuffle saw the player of the game, Sophie Birkett, being moved in to centre mid-field, with goalkeeper Kayce Whineray slotting in at right back in her first outfield action of the season.
Hannah Ridgewell moved from midfield into the back line playing centre back alongside Linzi Donaldson and Natalie Hooper at left back. Laura Miller took up her customary position between the posts and Keeley Holliday and Chloe Henderson joined Birkett in the middle, with Hayley Bracken playing slightly deeper than she normally does.
Laura Ivison travelled after working night shift the previous evening and played up front along with Hannah Geen.
The control with which the Ladies played with, gave them the better of the chances of the game.
Good links and keen running between the midfield three and the front three gave the home side plenty of problems with decent chances being created for Bracken and Holliday, but unfortunately both failing to find the back of the net.
The quality of delivery from dead ball plays from Donaldson and Geen throughout the game was superb and this was enough to repeatedly unsettle the home defences, so it came as no surprise that this was the route to the winning goal of the game.
Bracken had used her strength well to retain possession on the halfway line before releasing Birkett into space. The covering challenge meant Birkett had to fight and did well to force the defender to concede the corner. Geen delivered dangerously from the right and Bracken made sure she was first to the ball and headed home with less than ten minutes of the half remaining.
The lead could have been doubled as soon as the second minute after the break when Geen had linked inside her own half for Bracken to drive over the halfway and drive through three would-be- defenders. She carried into the home penalty area but her strike was lifted slightly high and the ball rose over the crossbar to safety.
Penwortham rallied in an attempt to gain parity, but the visitors stayed strong in their defences with all 11 players battling to keep the home side at bay.
Birkett collected the accolade of Player of the Game from the home side for her robust defending and keenness to attack. This was the second week running that she has received this recognition which is a great indication of the form that she is in at the minute.
After the game, manager Paul Mackenzie said: “I can’t praise the attitude of the lasses today highly enough. Laura was on night shift last night, Kayce is a goalkeeper that had to slot in at right back and Hannah has never played at centre back for the club before.
“All 11 players accepted the challenge in front of them and they all battled and contributed to a well-deserved win. Chloe Henderson’s 90-minute performance typified the resolve of the full team, picking up injuries to both ankles and her knee that would usually have seen her leaving the field of play.
“Determined to not let the team down, she picked herself up and kept going right through to the final whistle, a trait replicated by them all.”
The Ladies now break for the Christmas holidays and will not return to action until the first weekend in January when they will travel to Preston North End.
