Last updated at 11:43, Monday, 25 June 2012

On and off the field Workington Town were big winners yesterday – taking another firm step towards promotion and also enhancing their place as a top community club.

Lillie-Mai Jackson and Jarred Stack lead out Workington

The 30-28 home win against neighbours Whitehaven was the least convincing of their four victories over the Recreation Ground side, but it was enough to maintain second place in the Championship One table.

But it was the efforts off-the-field which made such an equally big impression as Town’s latest charity-support venture proved a huge success.

Town dedicated the whole weekend to meningitis awareness and the Lillie-Mai trust in support of Maryport tot Lillie-Mai Jackson, who has lost both her legs and an arm, as a result of the disease.

The near 2,000 crowd gave the youngster a great reception as she was carried onto the field by Workington skipper Jarrad Stack and the fans showed their support by giving generously to a bucket collection.

An auction of the specially designed purple and pink strip, worn for the day by the Workington team, raised £4,000 with the top price of £1,000 being paid for Jamie Thackray’s number 17 shirt.

Two of the Workington players contributed their match fee to the fund and when everything has been added up Town hope to have raised over £8,000.

But Town’s joint coach Gary Charlton wasn’t happy with the side’s performance, which eventually saw them grateful for a late conversion miss for the two-point victory.

“We can play a great deal better than that, so it was disappointing. Credit to Whitehaven as well, because they showed much more than they had in the other games against us and were clearly right in contention until the last minute.

“The players won’t be happy with the way they performed and I know they will be putting it in at training over the week ready to go and put things right down at North Wales next Sunday,” he said.

There are seven games left to play and Town still have to host leaders Barrow (two points better off) while they have to travel to third placed Doncaster (two points worse off).

The current top three do look nailed-on for promotion with Whitehaven favourites to join them.

First published at 11:28, Monday, 25 June 2012
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk