On this day – 22 November
Flicking through the record books to see what was happening to Reds on the 22nd November in years gone by………
Forty years ago, Borough Park welcomed its last big crowd to a match with Workington hosting neighbours Carlisle United in the First Round of the FA Cup.
Back then, Reds were into their fourth season of Northern Premier League football whilst Bob Stokoe’s United were a Third Division outfit.
Both sides were in poor form going into the cup tie but the first ‘real’ Cumbrian derby, since our demotion from the Football League, attracted the interest of the whole county and a crowd of 7,362 generated record receipts of £8,909.
The match wasn’t a classic but we went closest to scoring the winner but we squandered a couple of decent chances and saw one effort rebound off the cross bar. The outcome – a goalless draw!
United included rising star, Peter Beardsley, in their line-up and future Workington player, Gary Watson.
The Blues won the replay 4-1, progressed through the next two rounds before eventually making their exit at Bristol City in the Fourth Round (0-5).
Reds have rarely won on this particular day but, without doubt, the most soul destroying ninety minutes was a Sunday lunch time fixture against Shepshed Albion in 1992.
An embarrassing display from the hosts culminated in a humiliating 1-7 defeat with manager, George Norrie, losing his job as a consequence. Thankfully, there weren’t many fans present to see how bad we were with the official attendance listed as 130.
A home draw against Farsley Celtic in 2003 was more palatable but much of the talk beforehand was about rugby union. A few hours earlier, England had won the Rugby World Cup after that memorable 20-17 win over Australia ‘down under’.
Fast forward to 2008 and, at last, a victory to celebrate and a good one too!
We travelled to Tamworth on FA Trophy duty and a 78th minute goal from Jonny Wright (inset) secured a commendable 1-0 win avenging a 4-1 home defeat in the league a month previous.
