Warrington Town 1 Workington 2

WARRINGTON Town’s inconsistency haunted them yet again as Workington travelled back to Cumbria with three points on Saturday.

In what turned out to be manager Stuart Mellish’s final game in charge of the Yellows, they trailed at half time through Elliot Newby’s header.

David Symington doubled the visitors’ lead from the penalty spot midway through the second half, but Mike Grogan’s overhead effort gave Town hope.

The hosts threw everything at the visitors in the closing stages, but they could not force an equaliser and Mellish, who parted company with the club after the game along with assistant Lee Smith, felt his side deserved more.

“I thought we started the game very well, Workington were never in the game for the first 20 minutes or so. We’re disappointed with the first goal, we should be stopping those crosses coming in,” he said.

“The second goal is just simple mistakes. Simon Lenighan had time on the ball on the edge of the box but he’s gone backwards which has caused us problems and we ended up giving a penalty away.

“It’s always difficult at 2-0 down but I thought the lads were terrific for the last 20 minutes.

“I thought we were going to get an equaliser and I think a draw would have been a fair result.”

Warrington started the game on the front foot, with the visitors seemingly content to let them have the ball.

Neither side created too much until the visitors opened the scoring on the half-hour mark.

Jake Simpson was allowed time to curl in a cross from the right from which Newby ghosted in behind Town full-back Pete Wylie to plant a header past Jon Worsnop.

Yellows pressed on looking for a response and finished the half strongly, with Tom Peers heading just wide from a Steven Gillespie free-kick.

Gillespie tried his luck himself shortly after but his volley was straight at the Workington goalkeeper as Town trailed at the break.

After a Scott Metcalfe corner flashed dangerously across the Workington goal early in the second period, the visitors started to express themselves more.

Symington found himself within shooting range and Worsnop had to be alert to push his long-range effort away Nathan Waterston then beat Worsnop to a through-ball and took the ball round the keeper, but the angle became too tight for him to slot into the empty net.

Waterston then narrowly failed to connect with Robbie Hebson’s cross, but they were presented with a chance to double their lead when Scott Allison was brought down by Jon Shaw in the area.

The referee pointed to the spot and, despite Worsnop going the right way, Symington’s penalty was too powerful.

Worsnop then denied Hebson one-on-one as the game threatened to get away from Town, but they pulled one back when Andy Nicholas headed down Scott Harries cross and Grogan came up with an excellent improvised finish to beat the keeper.

Warrington camped in the visitors’ half and kept them under heavy pressure, but the closest they came to a goal was a wild volley over the bar from Simon Lenighan.

Town will look to bounce back under caretaker management on Tuesday when they travel to take on second-placed Rushall Olympic.