ON THIS DAY: 29 January – Trips to The Shay & Wetherby Road
A look through the diaries to see what was happening to Reds on the 29th January in previous years…….
1955 Halifax Town (away) 2-2 The Shay has not been the happiest of hunting grounds for Reds over the years and anything obtained there was always regarded as a bonus. However, on this occasion, the feeling was that ‘we should have won’. Jack Bertolini and Rex Dunlop scored the goals which secured the draw.
1977 Doncaster Rovers (home) 1-1 This was the most popular score line in our final campaign of League football but it was an unfamiliar scorer who helped us obtain a point on this occasion. Colin Williamson scored twenty goals for the Reserves in the Northern Football Alliance that season but his first Fourth Division goal at Borough Park helped us hold Stan Anderson’s Rovers.
1983 Matlock Town (away) 1-1 The draw ‘theme’ continued in the Northern Premier League with Reds earning a well earned point at Causeway Lane. Reds’ ‘keeper, Gerard Fisher, saved a penalty in the first half with Graham Gill (featured) netting our goal in the second.
1994 Harrogate Town (away) 4-1 A profitable afternoon in North Yorkshire with Reds’ Geordie trio of Martin Henderson (2), Paddy Atkinson and Danny Wheatley scoring the goals which secured a best ever win at Wetherby Road.
2000 Ossett Town (away) 1-3 This was our first visit to the Ingfield Ground (now the home of Ossett United) and heavy rain had made the pitch almost unplayable by kick-off. Both teams contributed to an entertaining game in the mud with John Borg netting a Reds’ equaliser in the first half.
2005 Ossett Town (home) 3-1 It was our turn to celebrate five years later with the comfortable win extending our lead at the top of the Unibond League Premier Division to eleven points. Graham Goulding opened the scoring, Mark Eccles doubled the lead via the penalty spot and Gary Cohen got a third to make sure of the points before Town bagged a late consolation goal. Former striker Dave Irving was spotted in the crowd and a Border TV camera crew also attended.
2013 Gainsborough Trinity (home) 0-3 Reds were low on numbers and, on the morning of the match, four players (Tom Manship, Rod Owusu-Andrews, Richard Bannister and Ryan Smith) were registered and all appeared on the team sheet that night. High flying Trinity won as comfortably as the score line suggests.
