ON THIS DAY: 30 December – Tinnion(s) on the score sheet

Reds have played very few matches on the 30 December over the years but, when they were in action, often ended the year on a positive note……

Chesterfield were our visitors back in 1967, just four days after we had met in the Boxing Day clash at Saltergate.  The first meeting had finished goalless so Reds were hopeful of collecting both points in the return.

Although confident of matching Chesterfield on the pitch, they certainly wouldn’t better the turnstile response with over 16,000 watching the game in Derbyshire compared to a gate of 2,300 at Borough Park.

We had a Tinnion in the team in those days with Brian gaining England Youth honours during his time at Borough Park.

And it was he who opened the scoring just before half time with Tony Geidmintis doubling the lead soon after the restart.  Chesterfield did score to make the last quarter of an hour interesting but John Ogilvie had the last word with his goal securing a 3-1 victory.

After Brian Tinnion’s transfer in 1968, the next home grown youngster to attract interest from afar was Dave Irving.

Quite a few clubs were checking his progress towards the end of 1972 and for the home match against Aldershot, Middlesbrough boss, Stan Anderson, was in the stand to see for himself how good Mr Irving was.

Aldershot had opened the scoring but Irving was involved in the equaliser which Johnny Martin netted.  Then Irving scored a spectacular late winner to the delight of the 1,819 attendance with a young journalist, John Walsh, describing Dave’s goal “worthy of winning any game.”

The Borough Park attendance was bettered at the Recreation Ground where Haven beat Town (5-0) in the rugby league derby before a crowd of 1,850.

Reds were in National North action back in 2006 with opponents Barrow making the short trek up the coast.

Steve Birks was our skipper at the time but there was an abundance of leadership qualities in the side with no fewer than nine (Collin, Hopper, Anthony Wright, May, Gray, Hewson, Anthony, Birks and Johnston) past or future captains in the team.

All that experience and we still couldn’t manage a win with a 1-1 draw the outcome.

Dean Douglas netted the Reds equaliser after Zico-Black had opened the scoring for the Bluebirds.  

Our most recent outing on this day was three years ago at Marton Road, home of Stafford Rangers, and a 2-1 Workington win saw us end the year in second place in the Premier Division.  The modern day Tinnion – Conor – scored one of the goals with Phil McLuckie netting the winner!