Workington Reds drew their third pre-season friendly against Scottish visitors Caledonian Braves, the first they had played at Borough Park.
It finished 1-1, which was a fair result after both sides had made numerous changes in the hot, strength-sapping conditions.
Reds’ boss Darren Edmondson used 22 players, while the Braves who had lost 3-1 at Morpeth on Friday night, had 25 with them and used most over the two games.
Although the visitors looked the sharper side in the first half it was Reds who led 1-0 at the break. Then while Workington were the better in the second-half the only goal was a Braves equaliser.
Edmondson had a plethora of youngsters in this match-day group and several will have done their chances of making the NPL squad no harm at all.
Unfortunately one of the stand-out performers Sam Christian leaves for America next month and will be studying over there for the next four years.
Making solid contributions were Zack Martin and Callum Bell while Louis Pickering was particularly solid and effective when he came on as a second-half substitute.
There has been much interest in the clutch of Holker Old Boys players who have thrown in their lot with Reds this season – three of them individual trophy winners in the North West Counties League for the Furness side.
Will McGladdery and Luke Ellis were particularly solid, workmanlike and effective in midfield. Ellis, signed in mid-week, did particularly well in scoring the Reds goal.
It came in the 32nd minute when a free kick was floated into the Braves area, won well by Tom Dawson another of the ex-Holker recruits and his header hung tantalisingly under the bar.
Bernie White is a 6ft 5ins keeper but he was outjumped by Ellis who climbed superbly to beat him to the ball and head home.
Other than that Josh Galloway was closest to a Workington goal when he let go with angled drive from the edge of the area and it flew just wide.
At the other end Alex Mitchell had to make one routine save, going down on his line to hold a snap shot from Ross McNeil while Jack Dickinson was positioned well to head clear off the line from Bright Prince.
Workington had more threat and go forward with the arrival of Nathan Reid (another ex Holker player) and Steven Rigg, but it was the Braves who scored the only goal.
McNeil had headed a good chance onto the roof of the net but made no mistake on 51 minutes when Jordan Little completely missed an attempted clearance when trying to deal with a long ball down the middle.
McNeil was quick to take advantage, going on to drill a low shot beyond Mitchell into the bottom corner.
It was honours even and now Edmondson will be working his players in training next week before the next game, at Cleator Moor Celtic on Tuesday, July 22.
The Reds squad (all used) was: Mitchell, Rumney, Dickinson, Little, Swinglehurst, Pickering, Martin, Routledge, Leslie, C. Bell, Casson, McGladdery, Ellis, Christian, J. Bell, Nugent, McDonagh, Symington, Galloway, Reid, Rigg, Dawson.
Here’s what Edmondson had to say after the match:
