WARRINGTON Town boss Stuart Mellish is confident his side have turned a corner as they prepare to start their FA Cup campaign at Workington on Saturday, kick off 3pm.

The Yellows returned from a trip to Marine with a creditable 1-1 draw on Bank Holiday Monday, when Liam Goulding’s last-minute goal for the hosts cancelled out Mike Grogan’s opener after Sean Clancy had been sent off.

“The character and work ethic the guys have shown in the past two games has been different class – I’m so proud of them,” he said.

“This time last year we had one point less than we have now and were in a lower division. That shows you the progress we’ve made as a club.

“It was disappointing to concede the way we did at Marine.

“We should have seen the game out at 1-0, but we showed great desire at a difficult place to go.

“We also lost another key player in Ged Kinsella to injury and it was our second game in 48 hours.

“I’m really pleased with how we did.”

Monday’s result came after Town ended a three-match losing run with a 5-3 victory over Matlock on Saturday.

Ben Deegan hit a brace to go with further goals from Grogan, Ciaran Kilheeney and Jay McCarten at Cantilever Park.

The Yellows had to come from 2-0 and 3-2 down to secure victory, but Mellish says he never doubted his side despite their poor run.

“Last week was a difficult one for us because things weren’t going our way,” he said.

“But I knew once we got ourselves a goal we’d be ok.

“We knew we needed to improve our forward play, and we needed to be more creative in the final third.

“We had started the game well but conceded two stupid goals from set pieces, which is so unlike us.

“We were playing some good stuff and I was still quite confident we would get one back before half-time, which we did.

“Once we did that, I knew there was only one winner. The lads showed great character in that performance.”

The past two results have coincided with striker Deegan’s return to the starting line-up, and Mellish was full of praise for the big frontman.

“For some reason or another Ben wasn’t really hitting the right standards in the early weeks of the season so others quite rightly got to play,” he said.

“He’s got back to training well, lost weight and is playing with really confidence now. He’s taking his chance.”

Town are now 14th in the Evo-Stik Premier Division table with seven points from their six games.

However they take a break from league action this weekend when they make the trip to Cumbria to begin their latest FA Cup adventure with a first qualifying round tie.

Memories remain fresh at Cantilever Park of a run to the second round proper two years ago, but Mellish is not looking beyond Workington.

“It’s always a difficult place to go, and is probably as tough a draw as we could have got,” he said.

“If you look at the league table, they’ve started the season in the exactly the same way we have but they have been a solid side at this level for some time.

“It will be a tough game but it’s one we are all looking forward to.

“The performances over the past week have given us a great deal of confidence that we can go there and get a win that puts us through to the next round.”