MATCH PREVIEW: We welcome Guiseley and 2025 to Borough Park

Saturday marks the sixty-seventh anniversary of Manchester United’s visit to Borough Park for the famous Third Round FA Cup tie, just weeks before the Munich tragedy.

But the focus is very much on the present and we know very well the quality of a Guiseley team who have become formidable opponents over the last thirty years or so.

Reds host one of the Premier Division’s in-form teams for the first home fixture of the New Year (3pm).

And on current form, some night argue that Reds would probably have a better chance of obtaining a win against United than they have of upsetting Mark Bower’s Guiseley, such is the Yorkshire side’s dominance in this fixture.

All joking aside, though, Reds go into this encounter needing a performance similar to the one that took Macclesfield to the wire six weeks ago to have a chance of getting some tangible reward.

We have to stay in the game as long as possible, battle and scrap for 95 plus minutes, win all the personal battles, retain our concentration and determination levels and take any chances when they come along.

Mark Fell’s team talk will, of course, be more detailed than that but we all agree a bit of luck would be welcome too.

This is the reverse of the opening day fixtures when, on a pleasant August afternoon, we lost 2-0 at Nethermoor.  That was a ninth defeat for Reds in thirteen visits to Yorkshire.

Our record on home soil is only slightly better and that somewhat hollow victory at the end of last season was just our third in twelve Borough Park meetings.

Overall, in twenty-five league encounters Workington have won four times, Guiseley have been successful on fifteen occasions and six games have been drawn.

They were 2-0 winners at Gainsborough Trinity on Boxing Day and won comfortably against Bamber Bridge (3-1) on Wednesday.  Currently second in the table, they have only lost three times this season and their unbeaten run stretches back to September.

Reds will be short on numbers again with David Norris and Josh Galloway not fit to return just yet.