‘We will fight to the very last to retain our Northern Premier League status’ declared Workington Reds chairman John Mackay.

Reds face a crunch test this afternoon when bottom of the league North Ferriby United head to Borough Park in what is a ‘must-win’ game for Workington as they battle the threat of relegation, ko 3pm.

And Mackay says they will not give up hope that they can salvage this season in the final few weeks and stay up.

“This is a massive game, a must-win really for us,” admitted Mackay.

“We have already beaten them recently so you might expect us to take the three points but nothing is certain in football. We just have to believe in ourselves.

“We still have Mickleover and North Ferriby to play and these are massive six-pointers for us.

“The first game is today and although we still need to rely on other results going our way as well, all we can do is win our games and then hope for the best.”

Mackay appealed to the fans to give their back to the side, who are desperate to find a way out of their troubles.

“It is important that we all get behind the squad as it isn’t as though they haven’t been playing.

“It just seems that when you are down, you don’t get the rub of the green.

“We have had one of those seasons where everything has gone against us from day one.

“We had long term injuries a the start and even international clearance took longer than we expected and other players got injured. It has just been one of those years.

“But we keep on fighting and we will fight to the very last day to preserve our NPL status.”

There will be a pitch inspection at Borough Park this morning ahead of the game, around 8am, following the recent rainfall.