Workington Reds’ fight to avoid relegation from the Northern Premier League’s Premier Division will extend to the final fortnight of the season.
Billy Barr’s threadbare squad fell to a 2-1 defeat at Ashton United and it was only the misfortune of other teams that kept them out of the drop zone.
Morpeth Town, Prescot Cables and Stocksbridge Park Steels all suffered defeat leaving Reds one point better off, with just two games to play.
In a poor first half, neither side looked capable of breaking the deadlock with a couple of half chances squandered by each team.
The game was effectively won, and lost, in the first ten minutes after the restart.
Workington weren’t happy about a corner awarded to Ashton, claiming the ball had previously gone out of play. And they were even more annoyed when Alex Byrne’s flag kick sailed into the net as Reds’ keeper, Alex Mitchell, appeared to be impeded.
Despite the protests, the goal stood.
And it got worse for Workington five minutes later when Darius Osei’s persistence was rewarded with a second goal with the Cumbrians, once again, in a mess defensively.
To their credit, they finally started to play in the final twenty minutes and, for the first time in the game, caused Ashton a problem or two.
Josh Palmer and Jordan Little saw half chances drift narrowly wide of the target, Tom Stephenson’s angled drive was pushed away by Jordan Eastham and Ceiran Casson’s goal-bound shot was blocked by Spencer Knight.
And amidst that late flurry of activity, Matty Tymon headed home a consolation goal when he converted Jake Allan’s corner from the left, three minutes from the end of normal time.
It was a special moment for Tymon, scoring his first Workington goal in more than a decade, but it was a case of too little, too late as Reds slumped to their sixteenth league loss.
Billy Barr had to go into the game without Isaac Whitehall (work commitments) but Jack Dickinson, David Symington and Steven Rigg didn’t feature because of injury and Steven Swinglehurst, Brad Carroll and Luke Ellis appeared on the team sheet despite not being fully fit.
Reds play their final away game at Warrington Town on Saturday before the Farewell to Borough Park encounter versus Leek Town a week later.
Hear Billy Barr’s take on the game below:
