ON THIS DAY: 21 March – Billy Charlton becomes the club’s record goal scorer & Double over ‘Pools
WORKINGTON SUPPORTERS HAVE BEEN STARVED OF HOME VICTORIES ON THE 21st MARCH IN PREVIOUS YEARS WITH NONE EVER RECORDED ON THIS DAY AT BOROUGH PARK…….
1931 Ashington (home) 7-2 Billy Charlton (featured) would become the club’s record goal scorer (his total of 194 goals still stands) and emerged a Reds hero during the early to mid thirties.
The 1930-31 campaign proved to be Reds’ best to date in the North Eastern League and they would eventually finish 4th scoring 105 goals in the process. And that team success was due in no small part to Charlton’s individual contributions – 35 league goals – and he wasn’t a regular in the team until January.
He had already two hat-tricks to his name but went nap against Ashington in the emphatic victory at Lonsdale Park with Hart and Ridley completing the rout.
1936 Middlesbrough Reserves (home) 3-2 If Reds managed to finish above Boro Reserves during the North Eastern League era, they would have had a good season. It only happened four times and this was one of those occasions with the victory, watched by a crowd of 3,481, the last time we won a home match on this day.
Two goals from Huddart plus Thornton’s penalty secured the points and the final reckoning saw Reds in 5th spot and Boro’s Reserves in 6th!
1964 Hartlepools United (away) 2-1 With just ten games to go, Reds were still in with a great chance of achieving their first and only Football League promotion and a game at lowly Hartlepools (the ‘s’ was dropped from their title a few years later, apparently) presented an opportunity to maintain 4th position in the table.
We had beaten ‘Pools at home and managed to complete the double with a hard fought win at Victoria Park. Bill Hopper scored in the first half and Dave Carr’s penalty in the second secured a narrow but important victory.
Bill Hopper 
Dave Carr
Carlisle United were promotion rivals and they maintained their strong challenge with a 6-0 home win over Doncaster Rovers!
1970 Newport County (away) 1-0 Reds were desperate for points six years later but for entirely different reasons. The aim was to avoid the bottom four and another plea for re-election. We had found some decent form in February and March but that would be put to the test with another ‘mini-tour’ to South Wales, encompassing matches at Newport County (Saturday) and Swansea Town (Monday).
The first part of the weekend went well and Reds emerged 1-0 winners at County’s old Somerton Park ground with the win carrying extra significance because Newport, whom we had beaten three weeks earlier at Workington, needed the points for the same reason as us!
Skipper Jimmy Goodfellow, our only ever-present that season, scored the match winning goal.
The non-league era has been a barren period with numerous disappointing results recorded:
1979 Frickley Athletic (home) 2-2 Own-goal, Gill
1987 Chorley (away) 1-2 Messenger
1992 Congleton Town (away) 0-3
1998 Stocksbridge Park Steels (home) 0-1
2000 Matlock Town (away) 2-3 Dawson, Carr (penalty)
2009 Hinckley United (home) 1-3 Arnison
