Life on the road is never easy, just ask Workington AFC who have to travel 80 miles just to get to their nearest league fixture against Lancaster City.
But that doesn’t faze joint manager Lee Andrews, who claims being so remote has acted as a positive and brought the club and the area closer together.
The Cumbrian outfit face a 650-mile round trip to Weston Super Mare in their Buildbase FA Trophy second round clash on Saturday afternoon.
The squad is made up entirely of Cumbrians and Andrews, who played more than 200 times for the Reds, believes fielding an entire team of local players is what makes the club so special.
He said: “All of our squad is Cumbrian and all of our players live in the area. There’s not many clubs around us for them to go to so we look after them and they do the business for us so it’s a two-way thing really.
“Financially we cannot compete with other teams to bring players in from Lancashire or anything like that. But with a squad of Cumbrian players, the togetherness we’ve got as a team in the dressing room is sensational.
“It’s probably the best dressing room I’ve been involved in. There’s a togetherness here and the players do a lot with each other outside of football.”
Workington’s most successful run in the competition came in the 2009/10 season when they made it all the way to the quarter-finals, dumping out now-League One outfit AFC Wimbledon in the process.
Andrews was on the Kingsmeadow turf that day as a brace from Jonny Wright and Shaun Vipond’s 86th minute strike helped Workington come from behind twice to shock the Dons.
And the joint manager would love to create more history in the competition as the Northern Premier League side prepare for the long journey south.
He said: “We’ve got a few in the squad who remember beating Wimbledon in the FA Trophy. They know it feels for the competition to be special.
“It was probably one of the best days I’ve been involved in at Workington. Nobody expected us to get anything when we went there but that day will live long in the memory.
“People still talk about it now around the area. People want to be part of something like that again.”
DID YOU KNOW
Liverpool’s legendary manager Bill Shankly once managed Workington from January 1954-November 1955
BUILDBASE FA TROPHY HISTORY
Workington’s furthest run came in the 2009/10 season when they were knocked out by Stevenage Borough in the quarter-finals.
Weston Super Mare’s best showing in the competition is the fourth round, a stage they’ve reached on two occasions – 1999 and 2004.
THE PRIZE
The winner secures £7,000 in prize money and a place in the third round.
