On this day – 23 April
A look through the diaries to see what was happening to Reds on the 23rd April in previous years………
Reds’ best win on this day was actually our most recent outing – four years ago in fact.
Workington 5 Buxton 0 was how in-form Reds ended the season, marching into the play-offs in style after an emphatic victory over the Derbyshire outfit.
Kyle May opened the scoring and was joined on the score-sheet by Gareth Arnison, Conor Tinnion (2) and Rob Wilson (pictured) who bagged the goal of the match, volleying home his first goal for the club.
There was an unusual Borough Park double in 2011 with both first team and reserves in action.
The seniors played their Conference North fixture versus Hyde at 3pm and had to rely on a very late Kyle May goal to salvage a point in a 1-1 draw.
Then, at 6.30pm, the Reserves played a Lancashire League fixture against Witton Albion and a team which included Sam Smith and Steven Rudd lost by the odd goal in three!
As was the case in 2016, Reds were up against Derbyshire opposition in 2002 and 2005.
We travelled to Matlock Town fifteen years ago and, despite going behind to an early goal, we eventually won 2-1 to keep alive the promotion bid. Gary Cohen and Craig Johnston scored in the second half to earn the points.
Back in 2002, we lost 3-2 at home to Belper Town with the only highlight for home fans a fine volleyed goal from Matty Lea.
The referee at Borough Park that day was Neil Swarbrick who now oversees the VAR operation at Stockley Park.
Our only date in the eighties was a 1984 home clash against Morecambe and a 2-0 Reds win helped us finish above them in the table. Allan Carruthers and John Reach scored the goals that day.
Our Football League record at Torquay United’s Plainmoor Ground was pretty grim – ten visits to Devon, ten defeats unfortunately.
The last encounter there was in 1977 where we fell victim to a Lew Chatterley hat-trick. We even had to rely on a Torquay player to score our consolation goal in a 3-1 reverse!
But there was some Football League joy during the sixties with three wins and a draw recorded on St. George’s Day.
The 1966 home win over Watford was quite significant because it completed our only league double over the Vicarage Road club. Mind you, we had an Australian to thank for his contribution with Max Tolson scoring the only goal.
Twelve months earlier, we had beaten Colchester United in another 1-0 score-line with Barry Lowes (inset) netting the winner, his twelfth goal of a productive personal campaign.
Top scorer Bob Morrison scored his 17th goal of the season in the 1960 home win over Exeter City with a rare Joe Wilson goal completing the 2-1 success.
Joe Armstrong and Billy Gordon scored quite a few goals for Reds in their relatively short Borough Park careers, and both netted two apiece in the 1958 victory over Mansfield Town with the 4-0 win ample revenge for a 6-3 defeat at Field Mill the previous month.
Don’t know whether it’s by design or coincidence but we played Ashington three times on the 23rd April during the North Eastern League era.
Reds won 2-1 in the north east in 1932, were crushed 6-1 there in 1938 and lost 2-0 at home in 1949.
And a 1947 visit to Consett saw the match abandoned after half an hour with Reds winning 1-0 when the referee called a halt because of the severity of the wind and rain.
