It might be all doom and gloom with Workington’s results in the NPL Premier Division but the club’s Under-18s are doing their best to bring some cheer for supporters.
They have won their second game in the FA Youth Cup and have an attractive home tie against Hartlepool United in the next round.
This latest tie against Spennymoor – postponed a week because Borough Park was considered too wet – finished all square at 1-1 and was settled from the penalty spot in the dreaded shoot-out.
Reds could have won it at the end of normal time but Alfie McDonough blasted his effort wide.
It proved to be Reds’ only miss on the night as the first five regulation spot kicks found the target from Joe Douglas, Joe Carney, Oscar Pickering, Harrison Telford and Luke Routledge.
Spennymoor’s Rory Nelson, Fin Wake, Ethan Docherty, Will Delderfield and Ethan Peverell all converted their spot kicks too to take it to sudden death.
McDonough then bravely stepped up to take the 11th penalty of the shootout and redeemed himself by scoring.
The pressure was on Spennymoor’s Ashton Robson and he fired over the bar to send Reds through.
The talented McDonough had fired Reds ahead in the tie after 24 minutes with smart control, turn and finish.
Spennymoor, who had looked very impressive earlier and it needed a great save from home keeper Joe Rumney to keep the tie all square before McDonough made the breakthrough.
Four minutes before the break the visitors levelled with a close-range finish from Peverell.
Then came the moment when McDonough missed from the spot as the game entered stoppage time.
He must have thought he had cost his side the chance of victory but the 17-year-old atoned for his error by calmly converting the winner in the dramatic shootout.
Workington: Rumney, Routledge, Charlie White, Jackson, Telford, Cueto, McDonough, Douglas, Carney, Fulton, Rogers. Substitutes – Amor, Pickering, Thomson, Liam White, Palmer, Roberts, Gaskell.
