Whitby Town slump to 3-1 home loss against Workington

The Seasiders fell behind early on to David Symington's stunner and reacted well in the first half at the Towbar Express Stadium, but the second half was much more of a struggle for Gary Liddle's men, writes Liam Ryder.

Kai Nugent doubled the visitors' lead early in the second half, before Steven Rigg's deflected effort confirmed that the three points would be heading back to Cumbria, despite Matthew Tymon pulling a goal back for Town five minutes from time.

Aiming to increase the gap between themselves and the relegation places with a victory against the Reds, Liddle made two changes to the side which suffered a 5-0 defeat against Ashton the previous weekend as Sam Collins and Aaron Haswell were both handed starts as the Town boss reverted back to a 3-5-2 formation from the start.

Stephen Walker came close to firing Town into an early lead as the striker's effort from a tight angle was fired over the bar with just two minutes played.

But Whitby suffered a blow five minutes later as Symington netted for the visitors, the experienced winger controlling the ball following a corner ball clearance and, after taking a couple of strides forwards, slammed the ball into the top left-hand corner.

There was a moment of controversy in the 32nd minute when Workington keeper Alex Mitchell caught Layton Watts on the edge of the area and was only given a yellow card. Watts' direction of running may just have saved Mitchell from a more severe punishment.

From the resulting free-kick, Nathan Thomas' setpiece was turned out by the left hand of the Reds keeper.

Town almost fell further behind shortly before half-time as Jamie Allen called Henry Popple into action from distance; Popple can consider himself unfortunate to have shipped eight goals in his last two games, with the shot-stopper not being at fault for any of these concessions.

In the 51st minute, Workington extended their lead through Nugent, who got on the end of Symington's left-wing cross inside the box before hammering a diving header past Popple into the goal.

Popple recorded an important save to deny Symington from extending Workington's advantage, blocking the scorer of the first goal's long-range dipping strike with his body.

Tymon, who would later go on to register a consolation for the Seasiders, latched onto Thomas' corner ball delivery but his headed effort was glanced narrowly wide of the post.

The Seasiders continued their pursuit for a route back into the game as Tymon saw a low curling effort saved by Mitchell.

With 75 minutes on the clock, Whitby's hopes of avoiding defeat were extinguished as Rigg netted Workington's third goal, finding the net with a huge slice of luck following an unfortunate deflection which left Popple with little chance of making a save.

Whitby pulled a goal back with five minutes of normal time to play through sub Tymon.

With Workington struggling to deal with a ball into the box, the first time this had really happened on what was a relatively straightforward afternoon for them defensively, Tymon was able to register his first goal since returning to the club as he calmly stroked the ball beyond Mitchell who was probably un-sighted.