ON THIS DAY: 5 February – Neutral grounds & Brian Little in the dugout
A look back through the diaries to see how Reds fared on the 5th February in years gone by…….
2013 Harrogate Town (away) 1-3 Due to ongoing problems with Town’s Wetherby Road pitch, the Blue Square Bet North fixture was played at York City’s Bootham Crescent which meant a first visit there since 1970. Reds dominated the first hour of the match but three goals in eight second half minutes swung the game in Harrogate’s favour.
Phil McLuckie had given the Cumbrians a first half lead and he and Joe McGee saw efforts rebound off the woodwork. Town equalised against the run of play and went on to pocket all three points.
The referee, Matt Walsh, was a former NPL player who had turned out, and scored, against Reds several years earlier during his time at Alfreton Town.
2011 Gainsborough Trinity (home) 4-2 A thoroughly entertaining afternoon with Reds coming out on top after a very good performance. Trinity, managed by former Aston Villa favourite, Brian Little, scored the first and last goals on the day with four individual scorers – David Hewson, Kyle May, Billy Greulich-Smith and Phil McLuckie – making their mark for Darren Edmondson’s side.
2005 Lincoln United (home) 1-2 A seven match winning run was halted by Lincoln United who completed a league double over Tommy Cassidy’s side for the second season running. The Unibond League Premier Division leaders were well below par with lowly Lincoln two ahead before Gary Cohen’s header sparked a short-lived revival.
2000 Worksop Town (away) 1-1 The FA Trophy adventure continued at Worksop who were a division above us at the time. It was a brave, resilient performance with Reds under considerable pressure for long periods of the game with the corner count 14-5 in Town’s favour. We had our moments, though, one of which saw Barry Irving heading home the opening goal after a quarter of an hour.
Town levelled matters on the hour which prompted trouble in the crowd with ‘supporters’ from both sides exchanging blows. Two late efforts from Brian Dawson rebounded off the woodwork so it finished all square with a replay necessary.
1994 Caernarfon Town (away) 1-2 As was the case in 2013, Reds had to play an away game on a neutral venue with exiled Caernarfon forced to play their home games in England in order to continue playing in the pyramid structure. Their temporary home was at Curzon Ashton and, although Lee Chambers opened the scoring with Workington’s 900th NPL goal, two well taken goals sent Reds home pointless.
1983 Burton Albion (home) 2-0 A rare win against Albion was welcome and secured quite comfortably on this occasion thanks to first half goals from John Smith, his twelfth of the season, and Martin Harris.
1977 Halifax Town (away) 1-6 Our record at The Shay was poor with just one win in eleven visits during the Football League era. With Reds struggling at the foot of the Fourth Division there was no reason to suggest it would be any different this time – and so it proved. They scored three in each half to register our heaviest defeat of that ill-fated season with Phil Ashworth’s reply scant consolation.
1972 Colchester United (home) 1-0 Workington’s excellent defensive record throughout the ’71-72 season owed much to the fine form of stalwarts Mike Rogan and John Ogilvie and both contributed to another clean sheet against the Essex boys. ‘Oggy’ also popped up to score the winning goal against Dick Graham’s team.
1966 Bournemouth (away) 1-1 This was Clive Middlemass’ breakthrough season with Reds, his third with the club. He had made the number six shirt his own, played all but two of our fifty two games and it was his goal that helped us to a point at Dean Court.
1965 Shrewsbury Town (home) 2-2 Reds never managed a league win over Shrewsbury although we did obtain a few draws against them, and this game could have gone either way. Barry Lowes, with his ninth league goal of a fine personal campaign, and John Chapman, scoring his first for Reds, were on target in an entertaining contest at Borough Park.
1955 Scunthorpe United (home) 1-1 A crowd of 8,601 turned out for this Third Division (North) encounter and, like the away game, it finished in a 1-1 draw with Des Jones our scorer.
