ON THIS DAY: 25 January – Twelve months since our last league loss & Sian Massey in the middle
It is now a year, to the day, since we lost a league match so we reflect on that disappointing afternoon at Ramsbottom and other Workington games played on the 25th January in years gone by…….
I doubt we have said it before and unlikely that we will say it again, Reds have remained unbeaten for a year – probably the only positivity we can hang-on to during the pandemic.
Sadly, no bragging rights from what has become a totally false situation but still a commendable effort in my humble opinion.
We had topped the NPL North West Division since day one back in August but finished second best at the Riverside Stadium, lost 2-0 (it could have been more), saw all our rivals pick-up points and ended the day in second spot.
Over a hundred Workington supporters boosted the crowd to over 600 but it was the Rammy faithful celebrating at 5pm.
Reuben Jerome opened the scoring with Josh Hmami doubling the advantage before half time.
Scott Allison came closest to scoring for miss-firing Reds but his shot rebounded off an upright.
We recovered from that setback magnificently, won the next eight matches in style before the first Lockdown and extended the unbeaten run this season to seventeen matches.
There was a better outcome in 2016 following a trip to Hyde United with Reds recording a best ever win at Ewen Fields. We won 4-0 on the night to complete a league double at their expense.
James Earl scored his first goal for the club in what was a fifth away win in a row with Kyle May, Gareth Arnison and Phil McLuckie also finding the target.
Another decent away performance was our 2014 Skrill North encounter at Brackley Town which resulted in a 1-1 draw. The match was refereed by Sian Massey (she had a better gig at the weekend, Chelsea v. Luton Town on the line), Workington’s first in the Conference controlled by a female.
The referee suspended play just before half time because of a violent storm – thunder, lightening, heavy rain and hail. After two intervals, Town opened the scoring but Joe Jackson deservedly equalised via the penalty spot after Joe had been felled by Brackley ‘keeper, Billy Turley.
Borough Park has hosted a number of drawn games on this day with Lincoln City in 1964 (1-1), Goole Town in 1986 (1-1), Farsley Celtic in 1992 (2-2) and Filxton in 1997 (1-1) all heading out of town with a point for their efforts.
Reds have celebrated a couple of 2-1 victories on the ground and a top scorer called Murray made sure of the points in 1975 and 2003 against Torquay United and Matlock Town respectively.
Dave Murray finished top scorer with 7 goals at the end of the ’74-75 season with strikes three and four of his tally seeing off Torquay in a closely fought Fourth Division encounter.
And Glenn Murray scored his 23rd and 24th goals of the season against Matlock Town – the first a well struck shot from just inside the area, the second a penalty – as we pocketed three welcome NPL points. He finished with 25 goals that season. We also had a top scorer to thank in 1958 with Billy Robson helping himself to a couple in a 5-3 home win over Chester. Des Jones, Clive Colbridge and Jim Currie also scored that day.
