On this day – 4 May
A look through the archives to see what was happening to Reds on the 4th May in years gone by………
The 4th May, 1977 – the day Workington would obtain their last point as a Football League club. Hard to believe it was forty three years ago.
It was our penultimate home game in that fateful 1976-77 season and Stockport County were our opponents for the Wednesday night fixture at Borough Park.
Despite losing their six previous games, Reds produced a spirited performance against County and were in front at the interval thanks to Eddie Prudham’s well taken goal.
But the match seemed to be drifting away from the hosts and they found themselves 2-1 down with twenty minutes remaining. After lacking drive all season, Reds could have been forgiven for allowing yet another defeat to be inflicted upon them but, instead, they showed a bit of character and salvaged a point with a late equaliser.
They were awarded a penalty and Phil Ashworth (pictured above) stepped up to score Workington’s final goal in the Football League, confidently dispatching the ball into the Town End net as the match finished in a 2-2 draw.
Reds played three other Fourth Division matches on this day, two resulting in narrow defeats but there was a victory to celebrate too.
Rochdale won 1-0 at Borough Park in 1968 and our final position of 23rd meant another re-election process.
We also lost by the same score in 1963 with Crewe Alexandra boosting their promotion bid by overcoming 10th placed Reds.
But Ernie Whittle’s 16th goal of a successful personal campaign was enough to secure a last day win against Halifax Town in 1955. The diminutive inside forward (inset), a former coal miner, was a favourite over four seasons at Borough Park.
Reds twice lifted the Cumberland Cup on the fourth day of May, doing so in 1938 and more recently in 2016.
It took a replay to land the cup in 1938, following a 1-1 draw against Carlisle United Reserves in the original game at Brunton Park.
The replay was more straightforward and Reds emerged 3-1 winners with Billy Boyd scoring twice and the third, an own-goal.
Four years ago, and still mentally scarred after the play-off defeat at Salford City three days earlier, Reds faced County League side Aspatria at Brunton Park (pictured below). It was a game we were expected to win comfortably and, thankfully, we did.
Anthony Wright and Gareth Arnison had found the target inside twenty minutes but a little complacency on our part enabled Aspatria to enjoy a purple patch either side of the interval. But Reds finished strongly and eventually won 4-1 with Conor Tinnion’s sublime goal and a Scott Allison effort seeing us through to a satisfactory victory.
Scott had the pleasure of scoring in every round as Reds lifted the trophy for the 25th time.
