On this day – 13 May
Reflecting on what happened to Reds on the 13th May back in the sixties………
It is not often Match of the Day and Workington AFC are mentioned in the same breath but there was a tenuous link between the two on this day in 1967.
At the very end of the programme the presenter made reference to the attendance ‘at this afternoon’s Workington v. Reading Third Division fixture’. Just 856 fans had been counted through the Borough Park turnstiles for what, up to that point, was our lowest crowd since our election to the Football League.
Sadly, there would be gates even lower than that in our final few seasons in the League.
It was a miserable wet day, we were just about to be relegated and yet we had had won our two previous games.
The game itself was quite entertaining with Reading, who included one former Red, John Chapman, and a future manager, Colin Meldrum, in their line-up, still having an outside chance of promotion whilst Reds’ only aim was to avoid bottom place in the table.
It was the Berkshire side who came out on top, 2-1, with Tommy Spratt (inset) scoring our goal from close range at 0-2.
Reading just missed out on promotion in the end, Reds finished rock-bottom!
Reds were ‘running on empty’ in 1963 as they caught up with a back-log of fixtures and the game at Darlington’s old Feethams ground (pictured above) was their fourth in nine days.
No surprise, therefore, that we suffered a 3-1 defeat with even our solitary goal netted by a generous ‘Darlo’ defender.
In the final reckoning, we finished 10th, three points better off than Darlington who were 12th!
