By John Walsh

Workington Reds boss Danny Grainger is likely to bring back several key players as they bid for play-off success tonight.

Reds host Clitheroe in their NPL West semi-final on a big night in their promotion bid (Borough Park, 7.45pm).

Grainger left some senior players like Dan Wordsworth, Conor Tinnion and Scott Allison out of his 16-strong match day squad for Saturday's win over Colne.

All three are likely to be involved tonight, while the one real concern for Grainger will be the fitness of centre-back Sam Smith who had to retire early Saturday's game because of a groin strain.

Cieran Casson was already operating there to allow Wordsworth time off the busy end-of-season schedule, and Steven Rigg filled in for the rest of the game, earning strong praise from his manager.

“I wanted to be careful managing one or two players because hopefully we now have two big games to contest. We are looking for a big finish to the season," Grainger said.

“It didn’t matter which of the other three sides we met in the play-off semi-final. They are all good teams and we will have to be at our best,” said Grainger.

Opponents Clitheroe, who finished one place and 11 points behind third-placed Reds, will be looking to repeat their 1-0 win at Borough Park early in the season.

The Lancashire club are aimint  make history, having never been higher than where they are now and have reached the play-offs for the first time, bidding to step-up to the NPL.

On Saturday they lost 3-1 at home to Kidsgrove but manager Dave Dempsey took the decision to rest ELEVEN of his first team squad.

If Runcorn Linnets had managed a goal at Trafford, where they drew 0-0, they would have taken over in fourth place and earned the trip to Borough Park tonight.

So clearly Dempsey didn’t appear concerned about where he had to take his side for the semi-final.

Leek Town host Runcorn Linnets in tonight’s other semi-final when a home win will guarantee them staging the final on Saturday.

It should be remembered, however, that Marine won promotion from the play-offs last season after playing both games away. They beat Reds 3-2 in extra-time in the semi-final at Borough Park.