Workington Reds squad will be back in training tonight after being given a break from Tuesday’s regular session.
Manager Billy Barr is conscious of preserving energy with two games in three days over the Easter holiday.
They travel to Warrington Rylands on Saturday and in a quick turnaround have Cleethorpes at Borough Park on Monday.
Two of his players – Jack Dickinson and Brad Carroll – both had to retire during Saturday’s fine 3-0 win over Hednesford and there will be checks tonight as to their availability for Saturday.
Barr knows that there is still plenty of work to do, despite the nine-match unbeaten run taking them out of the bottom three for the first time since the first month of the season.
It’s a remarkable run of results that has earned Barr a second successive nomination for Manager of the Month, a title he won in February.
This time he’s up against Mark Beesley (FC United of Manchester), Daniel Moore (Hebburn Town) and Craig Rouse (Cleethorpes Town).
Barr, however, always stresses that it’s been a massive team effort to get the club this close to safety, involving players, staff, directors and fans.
He stressed: “It was a great performance on Saturday, probably the best since we came into the club, but we have to remain focused and complete the job of ensuring our safety.
“We have two testing games over the Easter period with Warrington Rylands, who are in the play-off places and Cleethorpes, who have a chance of getting there.
“We gave them all a night off on Tuesday because of what lies ahead over Easter as we want to reserve energy levels.”
Although encouraging his players to enjoy their night after the win over Hednesford, Barr cautioned on any further celebrations with work still to be done.
From a position at the turn of the year when they look nailed-on to finish in the bottom three, they are now out of the drop zone but safety is not assured. It’s still pretty congested down there.
Five games remain – two of them in three days over Easter – and there must be no relaxation in the determination to reach safety.
