Cleator Moor Celtic earned high praise from the opposition manager after their good win on Saturday.
Hurst Green boss Alex Young admitted his side ‘got a humbling’ in their 6-3 defeat in West Cumbria.
Josh Palmer (2), Dan Hill (2), Zac Benson-Lester and Sam Stones scored for the Hoops with Hurst Green replying through Daniel Mort, Ryan Duncan and James Whitworth.
Young said afterwards: “When you go away in this league, you’ve got to be competitive and do the right things.
“It’s not about playing silky football, it’s about competing and we just didn’t do that for 30 or 40 minutes of the game.
“It’s disappointing when you travel so far that you put that performance in, it’s not what we’re about – we got a humbling.
“Cleator Moor were excellent, they competed everywhere and they have got a good team this year so they deserved the three points.”
Young has been at the club for over two decades all told, playing for them for 20 years and taking over as first team manager in November 2023.
In his second full season, the team’s aims are to be ‘competitive’, after a 10th-place finish in a ‘transition season’ in 2024-25.
“We want to be closer to the top end than the bottom end, we’re seventh at the moment and it’s been a tricky league this year.
“The teams you’d maybe expect to be up there, aren’t there and there are games that we should’ve won that we’ve lost and vice versa.
“We’ve probably played better than seventh place suggests but that’s where we are currently,” he added.
Celtic turn their attention to the Richardson Cup on Saturday and a home tie against local rivals Whitehaven.
