Workington Reds boss Danny Grainger bemoaned another poor first-half performance from his side – which he believes cost them the win against Trafford.

Reds picked up their first points of 2020 with a 2-2 draw at Borough Park, but they had to come from behind twice against Trafford, who also had their keeper sent off early in the second half.

And Grainger admitted that they have to make the most of their opportunities and tidy up their game if they are to get back to winning ways.

“It was the same story as New Year’s Day,” said Grainger, who hopes to bring in a new face this week. “We weren’t at the races and we weren’t good enough. We know that if you give teams like Trafford a chance they will punish us.

“As much as we were poor in the first half we had three golden opportunities to go in there with a comfortable lead. But if you don’t hit the target or make the goalkeeper work you are never going to score goals.

“No matter what league you are in you can’t give a team a 45 minute head start then expect to turn up for 45 minutes and win a game. It’s not going to happen.

“We played poorly in the first half but started the second half on the front foot.

“We got the goal and the rub of the green with the sending off then again individual errors that we’re not dealing with are costing us.

“It was a straight ball into our box and in two seconds it’s in the back of our net, these things we have to tidy up on. If we don’t then we only have ourselves to blame.”

But he did praise his side’s work ethic as they now have a week between fixtures to recover from the tough festive programme

“It is frustrating and I feel for the lads because the effort and workrate they put in week in week out is there to see,” he added.