Gretna 0, Workington 1

In a repeat scoreline of last year’s pre-season friendly Workington opened their build-up with another victory at Raydale Park.

A spectacular strike from Dan Shannon gave Workington their win 12 months ago and this time another good goal of a different sort made the difference.

It came on eight minutes when Johnny Blake won the ball in midfield and laid a good ball out to new boy Aaran Taylor out on the left. He played a neat first time pass into the path of Connor Tinnion whose cross shot on the run beat keeper Alex Mitchell to find the corner of the net.

Blake and Tinnion, who joined Reds towards the end of last season after their release from Carlisle, both did well on a night manager Darren Edmondson had a look at four trialists.

Central defender Alex White, 21, (pictured) who can also play left-back spent last season with Ilkeston Town where he made 23 starts and made three substitute appearancs.

Formerly on the books of Middlesbrough and Hartlepool United he tried his luck north of the border. A spell with Gretna led to a move to Stranraer where he made 35 Scottish League appearances and scored 3 goals.

He then returned to England and played for Blyth Spartans and Tow Law Town prior to joining Ilkeston in the summer of 2009. A broken foot sustained in October 2009 led to an enforced lengthy absence and he struggled to regain form once he had recovered.

Aaron Taylor (ex-Morecambe) and Matty Tymon (ex-Hartlepool) were paired up-front in the first-half while Rico Colulo, a former Morecambe Academy midfielder/winger who has played subsequently for Colwyn Bay was used for the last half an hour.

All of them are likely to be given further opportunities to show their capabilities in subsequent friendlies, starting with Gateshead at home on Saturday.

Aaran Taylor was in goal for the Reds as there still appears to be no firm decision on the future of Tony Caig.

If Caig hands the gloves to Taylor for the coming season he knows they will be in good hands for the youngster, who has waited patiently for his chance, showed again in the opening friendly he has the confidence and ability to establish himself in a long line of top Workington keepers.

He produced the first two important stops of the night either side of Tinnion’s opener – just getting enough on a close range effort from Adam McMath and then going full length to turn away a shot from ex-Reds reserve winger David Ridyard.

At the opposite end Mitchell’s best work was to hold onto a snap drive from Steven Hindmarch while he was well positioned to grab a neat header from Phil McLuckie.

Edmondson made seven second-half changes – three of them at half-time – and there were times when they passed the ball around impressively a-la Spain, although like the World Cup finalists all too often there wasn’t enough fire-power at the end of it.

Hindmarch covered a lot of ground and did good work tidying up, perhaps not the mazy, dribbling we had expected, but a valuable contribution to the team cause.

Shaun Vipond, in particular looked fit and hungry for work when he arrived in the second period while there’s clearly plenty to come from established performers like Kyle May, Gari Rowntree, Dave Hewson and Jonny Wright.

A special word, too, for Adam Main – the young local hoping to make this his break-through season who is quickly mastering the art of doing the simple thing quickly and effectively.

The bonus for Edmondson and assistant Viv Busby was that defender Lee Andrews was able to get through a full 90 minutes when there had been concerns over a troublesome calf injury.

Reds entertain Gateshead on Saturday and follow-up at home to Carlisle Utd on Tuesday.

Reds: A. Taylor, Langford (Hewson), A. Wright (Rowntree), White (May), Andrews, McLuckie (Main), Hindmarch, Blake (Vipond), A. Taylor (J. Wright), Tyman (Colulo), Tinnion.

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