Workington Reds winger Conor Tinnion is confident his side can cope with Sutton Coldfield’s artificial pitch this afternoon.

The league fixture will take place at 3pm following confusion as to whether the game would go ahead.

A pitch inspection was carried out on Friday and officials gave the green light in the afternoon.

Reds go into this afternoon’s game on the back of two straight defeats, but just three points separate Reds in 12th and leaders Buxton.

Tinnion said: “Sutton Coldfield will be like most games in the league as no-one rolls over.

“The artificial pitch puts a different spin on it and we’ll have to come to terms with it.

“We’ve not started this season great. I think we did better against Buxton and we were pretty awful against Barwell.

“It’s early days and there’s no need to panic, but we don’t want to get into run of defeats and we need to put a stop to it.”

Reds host Blyth Spartans on Bank Holiday Monday in what will be the first meeting between the sides since the dramatic play-off semi-final in April.

The management team of Derek Townsley, Dave Hewson and Lee Andrews have been boosted by the return of defender Sam Smith from injury.

Forward Nathan Waterston is also back, but Gari Rowntree, Anthony Wright, James Earl and Joe McGee are all out. Midfielder Phil McLuckie is rated as 50-50 to feature this afternoon.

Tinnion believes last season’s play-off semi-final defeat will still be in Blyth’s minds four months on.

He added: “Blyth are the same as us and only have one more point than us. We need to pick up our performances up as they’re going to be strong this year again. It will be a good test to see where we’re at.

“It does hurt when you lose in those big games and I’m sure they will feel like they’re stronger than we are and we have to up our game.

“Teams like Blyth are the sort of teams we’re looking to compete with in this league.”

Reds’ match against Blyth kicks off at 3pm on Bank Holiday Monday at Borough Park.