ON THIS DAY: 23 December – ‘hand of God’
A look through the archives to see what was happening to Reds on the 23rd December in years gone by…….
We enjoyed a very successful December three years ago and our fourth successive win was achieved against Nantwich Town at Borough Park albeit after a below par performance.
Dav Symington opened the scoring early in the first half but Matthew Bell equalised before the interval – both well taken goals from the edge of the box.
And Reds’ final home game of 2017 was decided in our favour when man-of-the-match, Matty Douglas, headed home a seventieth minute winner.
Workington had to thank another Carlisle lad, Grant Holt, for our goal against Witton Albion back in 2000.
Albion had opened the scoring but what proved to be Holty’s final goal at Borough Park, during his loan spell from Halifax Town, salvaged a deserved point. He met a Gavin Skelton cross to convert a fine header.
Reds were also held to a 1-1 draw on this day in 1978 at South Liverpool in a game which saw goalkeeper, Ian Benson, make his debut.
Walter Gillott had opened the scoring, via a Barry Donaghy cross, but South hit back before the end.
Workington Town were also involved in a low-scoring draw that weekend – their match at Widnes finished 2-2!
There was a ‘hand of God’ goal in our 3-2 home win over Newport County in 1972 with Johnny Martin (featured) admitting to a handling offence in the build-up to him scoring our third goal.
The guilty plea was accompanied by that trademark, mischievous wink afterwards!
Dave Irving and Jimmy Goodfellow scored our other, legitimate, goals in a hard fought win.
No doubt about the outcome of our Fourth Division matches in the sixties.
Lincoln City inflicted a league double upon us at Sincil Bank in 1967 with a 3-0 victory following up a 4-2 success in Cumberland.
And, six years earlier in 1961, we lost 4-2 at Gillingham despite well taken goals from Ron McGarry and Mike Commons.
The Borough Park encounter, coincidentally, had also produced six goals, Reds inflicting a 5-1 defeat upon the Gills!
