A delighted Dave Hewson praised his gritty Workington Reds side for rolling their sleeves up and getting the job done in a superb second-half performance against Sutton Coldfield Town.

After a poor first half, which remained scoreless, Reds came out in the second period a different side and turned on the style to bag four goals.

Sam Joel put two in the back of the net, with Nathan Waterston and Jordan Holt also scoring.

Co-manager Hewson said he didn’t have to say too much to the players at half-time to get them to up their performance.

“There wasn’t too much to say at half-time to be honest, as there was nothing about our performance that was good enough in the first half,” he admitted.

“I didn’t go in all guns blazing because they knew it themselves and we spoke about it and what needed to improve, both with and without the ball.

“We gave them the responsibility to go out and earn the three points because we didn’t do enough in the first half to earn anything.

“All credit goes to them because the response was superb. The second half performance was also superb, a total contrast to the first half.

“They went out there, rolled their sleeves up, first and foremost winning the battle, and then some of the quality that came through was fabulous.”

Hewson added that a change in formation seemed to work wonders for Reds and it gave Joel the attacking freedom which resulted in his two goals.

He said: “The original formation just didn’t work for us and credit to Lee Andrews. He recognised that and made a change early on to get Sam up the pitch alongside Scotty and he looked much more of a threat.

“I was very pleased, especially in Sam’s second-half performance, in terms of his quality and his composure and his finishing.

“But I was happy with all of the goals. They were all well-worked and good finishes.

“Once we got the first, it seemed like we were just waiting for a second. When it came the floodgates opened.”