Delighted Workington Reds boss Dave Hewson praised his side for putting on a superb display on an emotional afternoon at Borough Park.

Reds beat promotion rivals Stourbridge 3-1 on a day when they welcomed former skipper Tony Hopper back to Workington to support him in his battle with motor neurone disease.

And Hewson said the visit of Hopper provided some extra motivation for Reds and they came up trumps to move back into the final play-off berth.

"I've said a lot about Tony and we said in the dressing room that the little bit of extra motivation for us today was to try and put on a display that Tony would be proud of," said Hewson.

"I think he would have been proud of a lot of boys with the red shirt on today. I think he would have liked to have been out there with them.

"I know a lot of people have shown their support and appreciation for Tony and I hope he enjoyed the game."

Hewson admitted it was an extremely pleasing performance with the team pulling together to claim the vital three points.

"It was thoroughly deserved," he added. "From minute one, I thought we were right at them, which we knew we had to be against a strong, very solid Stourbridge outfit.

"Maybe they weren't at their best today but I think that was partly down to us as we limited them.

"We went from strength to strength, there were just so many big performances today and I can't praise the lads enough.

"When they play like that, I would like to say that we could beat anyone."

Two goals from Sam Joel and one from Dave Symington handed Reds the win with Stourbridge's consolation coming from the penalty spot.

But Hewson was quick to point out that they were not getting carried away and they now had to concentrate on their trip to Coalville Town next Saturday.

"We are just taking it one at a time and, as long as we're winning, that's all we can do," said the Reds boss.

"We have to keep trying to be positive, churning out the results, getting the three points and keeping ourself in the mix and that's what we've done today.

"I'm going to heap all the praise in the world on everyone for this performance because they're the ones that step over the line, digging in and putting their bodies on the line for the cause and it was another strong performance."