ON THIS DAY: 04 March – Victory on a Sunday & Sam Smith debut
A look through the diaries to see what was happening to Reds on the 4th March in previous years…….
2014 Oxford City (home) 1-0 Workington v. Oxford City, let us remind ourselves, was a Conference North fixture during our last two seasons at that level and this was our only success against them in four attempts.
It was Reds first win in four months as we plunged towards relegation and it was Ian McDonald’s maiden victory as manager. Ben McKenna’s first half goal proved to be the decider but we wasted several decent chances whilst Walter Fernandes’ header rebounded off the crossbar, otherwise we might have been celebrating a more comfortable win.
Jonny Jamieson kept a clean sheet on his home debut and fullbacks Ben Hoskin and Sam Smith started their first game in Skrill North.
2013 Bradford Park Avenue (away) 0-1 The Horsfall Stadium has never proved a happy hunting ground and this was a fourth defeat in five visits to this spacious venue. Avenue scored the winner on the hour and, to be fair, were good value for the win although we did put a ‘shift’ in. Without the likes of Hewson, May, Wordsworth, Greenhalgh and Anthony Wright, Reds were a bit thin on the ground which led to Simon Baldry and Ben McKenna being registered and handed their debuts.
Baldry almost scored against one of his former clubs.
2000 Stocksbridge Park Steels (home) 0-0 A much changed team saw full league debuts for former Bury duo, Gary Hoggeth and Mark Donnelly, with both performing well in this goalless encounter.
We didn’t create too many clear-cut chances but an early injury (five minutes) to Brian Dawson didn’t help and the nearest either side came to scoring was Matt Henney’s shot which struck an upright.
There was a good steady performance from the referee, Neil Swarbrick, who is now the head of implementation of VAR to the Premier League!
1989 Radcliffe Borough (home) 3-0 Such was our domination in this NPL First Division encounter, we hardly noticed that Reds played the final half an hour with only ten men following Kevin Rowntree’s dismissal.
Radcliffe offered no real threat and goals from Gary Messenger, Keith Glover (penalty) and Peter Harbach secured a stress-free victory for the sparse crowd – just 127 punters passing through the turnstiles!
1984 Goole Town (away) 2-0 This Sunday fixture completed a busy weekend for the squad after we had hosted Chorley at Borough Park twenty four hours earlier.
Having lost on the Saturday, Reds bounced back in style and two second half goals from John Reach clinched a well deserved victory at the Victoria Pleasure Grounds.
Reach had also scored Reds’ goal in the Saturday game.
1978 Scarborough (away) 2-1 This was probably our best away performance in our first season of Northern Premier League football and a shock to the majority of the 1,747 crowd in the Athletic Ground at Seamer Road.
The hosts, including recently signed former Workington player, Martin Harris, had established a half time lead via a penalty but Reds came storming back and two cracking Walter Gillott goals secured a memorable victory against Fourth placed Scarborough.
1972 Scunthorpe United (home) 2-1 George Aitken was steering Reds towards a top six finish and most teams left Fortress Borough Park with ‘their tails between their legs’. In fact, none of the four promoted clubs won in west Cumbria including Scunthorpe United.
Champions Grimsby Town managed a goalless draw at Workington but the other three clubs: Southend United (1-3), Brentford (0-3) and Scunthorpe United (1-2) all lost.
John Martin and John Ogilvie scored the goals that secured the points against Ron Ashman’s side.
1970 Newport County (home) 3-0 Our league double achieved against Newport County during the ’69-70 season was crucial and made such a difference to the final standings. Reds amassed 38 points and finished in 20th position whilst the South Wales outfit obtained 37 points and were forced to apply for re-election.
The home win was straightforward with Jimmy Goodfellow, Tommy Spratt and Les Massie sharing the goals.
1967 Torquay United (away) 1-5 Tommy Spratt had joined Reds from the Devon club and had been their top scorer the previous season. He was on target on his return to Plainmoor but it was in vain as Reds crashed to the heaviest of their ten successive losses there.
1961 Stockport County (away) 0-1 Both matches against County finished in favour of the home side with odd goal victories recorded. We did finish above them in the Fourth Division, however, Reds in 8th were four points better off than the Edgeley Park side in 13th.
