MATCH PREVIEW: Fish & chips and three points please
I’m sure that will be the prerequisite of some Reds fans making their way to Guiseley on Saturday, a venue that hasn’t been the best of hunting grounds for Workington over three decades.
A record of just one win, three draws and eight defeats in twelve visits to Nethermoor suggests we face a very tough start to our thirty-eighth season of Northern Premier League football. But records, good or bad, don’t last for ever and, at some point, Workington will add to their solitary win on that particular patch of Yorkshire soil.
And, on the basis of you are only as good as your last result, the newly assembled Reds team will travel with confidence. That most recent league win, of course, was the 2-1 success over Guiseley at Borough Park in April.
It was just our fourth win in the series which began in the early nineties, and has included sixteen encounters in the NPL plus a further eight during our time in Conference North.
There have been many changes to both squads since then with an overhaul of personnel in both camps – on and off the pitch.
We have scored quite freely at Nethermoor in the past but have never kept a clean sheet there. Several heavy defeats have been inflicted upon us, including an opening day thrashing (2-6) thirty-one years ago.
Mark Bower is back in charge at Guiseley but Reds won in Yorkshire last year when he was manager of Bradford Park Avenue. They have come through a very attractive pre-season schedule with four wins and three defeats from seven matches, including heavy losses against Huddersfield Town and Barnsley but morale boosting victories versus Bradford City and Leeds United U21s.
Guiseley finished a commendable 10th last season but are strongly fancied to better that this term.
Mark Fell said he would be relieved when his first competitive match as Workington manager is over but, at the same time, he is relishing the challenge. He will hand a league debut to no fewer than six of his players on Saturday.
Venue: Nethermoor Park, Otley Road, Guiseley, Leeds, LS20 8BT
Kick-off: 3pm
Admission: Adult – £13, Concession – £9, 11-18 year olds – £5, Accompanied children (U11) – £1
Programme – £3
- Workington have experienced mixed fortunes on the opening day of the campaign. In their previous thirty-seven seasons in the NPL, they have started with 14 wins, drew on 12 occasions and lost 11 times. A 7-0 success over Ossett Town in 2003 remains our best ever start to a season.
