FA CUP: It has happened before
Monday’s FA Cup draw threw up a tie we probably didn’t want with Reds and Hebburn Town paired together at the First Round Qualifying stage – just five days after the inaugural league match between each other.
It will be the fifth time that the Cup draw has delivered a tie against a team we are about to play in the league, with the unusual outcome of back-to-back fixtures in league and cup.
It happened twice during our Football League days yet, remarkably, this will be the third time a similar situation has cropped up in the last nine seasons.
And, on three of the most recent occasions this has happened to Reds, the first Cup clash has resulted in a draw which has led to three encounters against the same opposition in an eight-day period.
Back in the 1973-74 season, we met Bradford City on consecutive Saturdays – inflicting a 1-0 defeat upon them at Borough Park in the League before losing an FA Cup tie at Valley Parade a week later.
Two seasons later (’75-76), we were drawn at home to Rochdale in the FA Cup a week before a scheduled away match in the League. The tie at Borough Park finished all square on the Saturday, we lost the replay at Spotland on the following Tuesday then Reds returned to Greater Manchester for the Fourth Division match which resulted in a draw.
During the 2016-17 season we faced up to Matlock Town three times in eight days. The cup-tie at Causeway Lane ended 1-1 before the Derbyshire side won the midweek replay in Cumbria, 3-1. Four days later they returned to Borough Park and recorded another 3-1 success in the League.
The situation happened again early in the 2021-22 campaign with Marine the opposition. A 1-1 draw was the outcome of the FA Cup clash at Borough Park, Marine knocked us out in the replay the following Tuesday before, for once, we actually won a match when the NPL clash back in Workington finished 1-0 in our favour!
Now, after waiting several years to meet Hebburn Town at first team level, we are preparing to play them twice, at least, in consecutive matches.
