ON THIS DAY: 24 January – Oakes hat-trick & Glenn Murray winner
A look through the diaries to see what was happening to Reds on the 24th January in previous years…….
Taking into account the various methods of producing the fixtures over the years, it has always been a possibility that team A will play team B on the same day twice or even three times over.
Reds have actually played three teams twice on the 24th January – Colchester United, Lancaster City and Ashton United.
We played Colchester in Fourth Division fixtures in consecutive years, 1969 and 1970, losing both unfortunately.
The former was played at home and we lost 1-0, then, twelve months later, we lost 3-0 in Essex. Six players played in both games.
Our two clashes against Lancaster City were both played at Borough Park, firstly in 1981 and then in 2004. Reds were successful in both, winning 1-0 on each occasion.
The eighties encounter was a Northern Premier League fixture and Barry Diamond’s first half goal secured the points and a league double against City.
Glenn Murray headed home the only goal in the second meeting which was in the early rounds of the NPL President’s Cup.
Both meetings against Ashton United were staged at their Hurst Cross ground and resulted in odd goal defeats.
Back in 1998, we were going through another change in management with Reds making the weird decision of appointing physio, Jackie Cunningham, in charge of team affairs. We lost 1-0.
More recently, in another NPL contest, we lost 3-2. Matty Tymon opened the scoring in the 2015 clash and Gareth Arnison netted the final goal of the afternoon. In between, though, we conceded three goals – all headers – and the points remained at Surrey Street.
We also suffered a 3-2 reverse in 1952 when Bradford Park Avenue won a closely fought Third Division North encounter at Borough Park.
The programme notes made reference to the attendance for the home match against Carlisle United played five days earlier when 17,165 squeezed onto the terraces. But the gate for the Park Avenue match was recorded as 13,000 fewer!
Ted Cushin, who had scored for Reds in the North Eastern League netted one of our goals, the other was bagged by Chris Simmonds who would finish top scorer in our inaugural season in the League.
Workington have recorded some impressive victories at Stalybridge Celtic in the last fifteen years and one of those was in 2009 when we left Bower Fold 4-1 winners.
Jonny Wright, Anthony Wright, Gareth Arnison and Andy Hardman shared the goals for Reds in what was a third win in four visits to Stalybridge.
There was an even better Workington victory recorded in 1948 when Reds emerged 7-5 winners against Blackhall Colliery Welfare in a bizarre North Eastern League fixture. Jackie Oakes contributed to the entertainment with a hat-trick!
