Beaten by the NPL Premier Division’s two bottom sides in their last two away games, Workington Reds look to home comforts to turn things round.
Mark Fell’s men follow the hugely disappointing 1-0 defeat at Blyth and the 2-1 loss at Matlock with matches at Borough Park against Bamber Bridge on Tuesday and with Whitby on Saturday.
Both teams are below them in the table – whether that’s a good thing or not is debatable – with Bamber Bridge a point and a place below in 15th and Whitby four places and two points further back.
Reds are unbeaten at home in the League and Fell will desperately want to keep that record intact over these next two games, given what happened on their travels.
Saturday’s loss was particularly disappointing given that they had played well enough in the first-half, had a 1-0 lead and had seen their opponents Matlock have a man sent-off for a reckless tackle.
Dav Symington scored from a planned corner move and there were other opportunities as well as a “stonewall” penalty which wasn’t given.
They should have been capable from there of going on and winning against a side who had not won a League game, losing six of their eight previous.
But Matlock scored twice, both from defensive shortcomings which frustrated the Reds management team.
Although there was a bit of a fight-back in the later stages they couldn’t manage the goal to give them a face-saving draw and now it’s back to Borough Park and the chance to put things right.
Manager Fell said: “It wasn’t good enough, losing to ten men after going ahead. We had a 20 minute spell at Blyth which cost us and at Matlock it was a 15-minute spell which cost us through being naive and fragile.
“We could have won the game 5-2 but because we haven’t stuck to plan we have lost the game. I think we missed Steven Rigg and Jamie Allen when they had to come off through injuries. We are having to wrap-up Jamie in cotton wool at the moment.”
Rigg did not come out for the second half and Allen limped off after the hour mark. Both will be doubtful for Tuesday’s clash with Bamber Bridge.
