Workington Reds boss Danny Grainger felt his players were “different class” as they put a frustrating first half behind them to record another home win against a promotion rival on Saturday.

Marske United came to Borough Park in fifth place in the NPL North West Division and for the first 45 minutes they made life difficult for the league leaders, restricting them to few clear-cut opportunities.

That changed immediately after the restart, with Nathan Waterston curling an unstoppable shot past the visitors’ goalkeeper from the edge of the box before reliable poacher Scott Allison added a second goal in the latter stages.

Grainger admitted his team had been lacklustre early on but could not speak highly enough of how they responded in the second half.

He said: “We’re delighted. They’re a good team Marske so to get three points is huge.

“In the first half I think that’s probably the worst we’ve played all season to be honest.

“I don’t think we had any tempo to our play, any intensity.

“We didn’t really do a lot and we still created chances.

“That was the frustrating thing for me in the first half but then second half the boys really upped their game and there was only going to be one team winning it, the boys looked absolutely different class.”

In-form Allison spurned a number of golden opportunities before and after finding the back of the net but Grainger felt his striker’s performance had deserved a goal which stretched his remarkable scoring run to eight successive games.

“I think obviously Scotty will be disappointed he hasn’t got a hat-trick today,” Grainger said.

“Scotty’s in tremendous form and I think he got his rewards for his workrate today.”