Workington Reds boss Dave Hewson praised the acrobatics of Keswick goalkeeper John Philips on Tuesday night – admitting he had certainly caught the eye.

Philips was outstanding for the Westmorland League side when they took on Reds at Borough Park.

And if it was not for some of his acrobatic saves, the 4-1 scoreline could have been wider.

Hewson admitted Philips deserved a lot of credit and said if he didn't have Aaran Taylor in his team, he might have been taking a closer look.

"He made some outstanding saves," said Hewson. "He played fantastic and fair play to the lad.

"It's a good job I believe we have the best keeper in the county or I probably would be calling on him.

"All credit to him, he pulled off some wonderful saves and it could have been more if it wasn't for him."

Hewson said he was delighted to be back on the touchline ahead of the new Evo-Stik Premier League season, which begins a week on Saturday, with the visit of Stafford Rangers to Borough Park.

And he added that there were plenty of positives to take out of their penultimate friendly, set up at late notice with Keswick.

"It's good to be back and I'm raring to go and ready for the 18th, chomping at the bit really," said Hewson.

"I do want to say thanks to Keswick for stepping up last minute to give us a really competitive game, you can see why they do so well in the league that they are in.

"And there were lots of positives for us to get out of it. At times, I felt like we dropped off the game a bit in the second half which was a little bit disappointing but I'm not going to dwell on the negatives.

"Four goals is always good but the disappointing thing is we should have got more."

Keswick chairman Ben Challis said his side would also get plenty out of the fixture, ahead of the start of their Westmorland League campaign.

The Lakeland side will begin the defence of their Division One title with a home game against Kirkoswald on Saturday before they travel to play Windermere on Tuesday night.

"We are the current champs, after going undefeated last season," said Challis.

"We have a similar squad to last year, although we have a good young lad come in called Zac Marriott, who is from Birmingham.

"But this is a community club and we rely on a lot of local players. We do have an ex-Red in Steve Hindmarch playing and Chris Rowley, an ex-Reds reserves player.

"It is a good squad and most of the players really wanted to play in this one."