On this day – 1 May
A look through the archives to see what was happening to Reds on the 1st May in years gone by……….
Lightning never strikes twice they say so it must have been pure coincidence when Reds played at Congleton Town in both 2000 and 2001. It became an even better statistic after winning both!
The latter success was a straightforward 3-0 win and down to Stuart Williamson (2) and John Wharton sharing the goals. The bonus for John was the goal being his first for the club.
Twelve months earlier, it had been more of a contest with Reds emerging 2-1 winners thanks to goals from Brian Dawson and Mark Donnelly, the latter netting his first in Workington colours.
One of the spectators that day was the then Manchester United player, Gary Neville (pictured) who wouldn’t see Reds in action again until the play-off final at Salford sixteen years later!
It was a rather special day in 1999 as we edged ever closer to landing the North West Counties League title. St. Helens Town might have thought about becoming party-poopers in front of a large Borough Park crowd but rampant Reds raced into a three goal lead by half time. We eventually won 4-2 with Grant Holt scoring twice, Darren Wilson and Mathew Henney (pictured) netting one apiece.
The crowd that day was 1,356 – the best at Borough Park for a league game post 1977!
Reds were on duty in the Cumberland Cup Final back in 1996 when Cleator Moor Celtic were our opponents at the Falcon Ground, Egremont.
We eventually won 4-1 but needed extra time before getting our hands on the trophy. That was because Darren Mahone equalised for the ‘green and whites’ with a late penalty. Kevin Rowntree and Nigel Dustin (pictured) each scored twice but it might have been more in extra time had it not been for Peter Little (Jordan’s dad) who pulled off three excellent saves to keep the score respectable.
It wasn’t all good news and we lost a game at Guiseley, despite scoring three times, in 1993. The hosts ended up 4-3 winners with Billy Roberts helping himself to a hat-trick whilst Graham Caton (2) and Paul Campbell responded for Reds.
The opposition goalkeeper in 1989 is now a business partner with the club and although we didn’t give him much to do when he turned out for Curzon Ashton thirty one years ago, we have kept Ian Senior busy in recent seasons as our kit supplier. Curzon won that game at Borough Park, 2-0.
Matches on Friday night and Saturday afternoon meant a hectic end to the ’80-81 campaign. First up was an away game at Mossley and a superb solo goal from Paul Handley won it for Reds by the odd goal in five. Vaughn Williams and Graham Gill also scored in our first ever win at Seel Park.
Our heroes were back in action the following afternoon.
We also won 3-2 at Bradford City in 1957 to ensure a 4th place finish with Barrow (10th) and Carlisle United (15th) below us in the Third Division (North) table. Tommy Kinloch, Ernie Talbot and Ted Purdon shared our goals at Valley Parade. And our best North Eastern League win on this day was the 1948 success over Consett with Jackie Oakes scoring his 40th, 41st and 42nd league goals of the season in a comfortable 4-1 victory.
