Workington Reds will come up against some familiar faces when they visit Lancaster City tomorrow in the NPL Premier Division.
Manager Chris Willcock took charge of the Reds in the 2021/22 season when they finished runners up in the NPL West Division and beaten by Marine in the play off semi-final.
He was the Workington manager in between Danny Grainger’s two spells at Borough Park, and last season took charge of his home-town club Stalybridge Celtic.
When they were relegated he left Celtic and had been out of football until joining Lancaster last month – opening with a 4-0 home defeat to Hyde.
But since then City have won their three subsequent games against Bradford PA, Matlock and Ilkeston which has moved them to eighth in the table, just three points off the play offs.
Willcock’s side includes several players with Workington connections – Niall Cowperthwaite, Brad Carroll and Nico Evangelinos started in last week’s win at Ilkeston while Matty Clarke was on the bench.
In addition Kyle Brownhill, who spent time on loan with Workington from Burnley in 2014, was also in the team that started the game at left-back.
Reds boss Danny Grainger, however, will be wanting to concentrate on his own team who have only won twice in 22 games if you ignore County Cup successes. A high proportion of those have been drawn.
However it’s the wins that Grainger and his side need over the next two months to kill off any threat of being dragged into a relegation fight.
At the moment the Reds have 14 points in hand over the best of the current relegation placed sides, but that is Bradford PA who have won their last two games including last Saturday’s 2-0 success at Borough Park.
The good news for Grainger from that game was the return from injury of Lewis Reilly and Aidy Roxburgh. He will be keeping everything crossed that the club’s debilitating injury list will stay clear until the end of the season.
Grainger has also insisted that, despite the poor run of results, he will not be changing his ideas on how he wants his team to play the game – possession, passing football from the back.
That was not exactly Willcock’s style which makes tomorrow’s clash at the Giant Axe even more intriguing.
