Trafford earned a superb point with a magnificent backs-to-the-wall performance in a 2-2 draw against Pitching In Northern Premier League North West Division championship favourites Workington on Tuesday night.

The Cumbrians, who were 10 points clear when the previous season was terminated due to the Covid-19 pandemic back in March, took the lead in the 16th minute when Reuben Jerome outpaced Jake Kenny down the left and crossed for Scott Allison to side-foot home from 10 yards.

Six minutes later, however, Trafford levelled when Max Hazeldine seized on a poor back-pass and curled a superb shot around James Atkinson and into the bottom corner.

Both teams pushed forward relentlessly with Allison seeing a shot deflected just wide for the hosts and Hazeldine flicking past the upright following a Keil O’Brien free-kick.

In the 35th minute Trafford stormed ahead when skipper Oli Roberts collected the ball 30 yards out on the left and struck a superb low angled drive into the far corner.

Allison then screwed his shot wide after Kenny miskicked before Workington equalised in the 45th minute when Charlie Bowman rode an O’Brien challenge and blasted a great drive into the roof of the net from 20 yards.

After the thrills of the first half, the second period was a strange affair with Trafford sitting back and allowing the hosts to dominate, Bradley Hubbold given acres of space in the midfield to dictate play.

Nevertheless, Trafford keeper Matty Cooper was not called upon to make a save of any note, the closest Workington came to break the deadlock being a header by Daniel Wordsworth in the 58th minute that flew past the left-hand post.

Trafford manager Danny Caldecott made three substitutions in an attempt to stem the tide with Matty Barlow entering the fray in the 77th minute.

However, his role in proceedings was to last just nine minutes as he was rather unfortunate to be sent off for what was deemed to be an over aggressive tackle on Allison.

Despite this, the 10 men of Trafford held firm to secure an excellent point from what had been a thrilling game of football.

Trafford, whose other outing this week saw them lose 2-0 to Chester in a hastily-arranged friendly on Saturday, next travel to Clitheroe on Saturday.

The Blues have won their opening two games of the new campaign.