ON THIS DAY: 6 January – Forest in the FA Cup
With the FA Cup Third Round programme scheduled for this weekend, we can reflect on Reds’ involvement in the competition on the 6th January back in the sixties…….
Wins over Worksop Town and Gateshead paved the way to a Third Round tie against First Division Nottingham Forest on this day in 1962.
The game was declared an all ticket affair with admission as follows: Stand – 4/6, Enclosure – 3/0, Ground – 2/6 and boys 1/0.
Andy Beattie’s Forest side were not having the best of times in the top flight, and had lost heavily at Manchester United in their previous outing, so the majority of the 14,000 crowd turned up hoping for Fourth Division Reds to cause a Cup shock.
The Workington XI was:
Charlie Wright, Joe Wilson, Bobby Brown, Phil Copeland, Roy Tennant, Keith Burkinshaw, Johnny Haasz, Arnold Timmins, Mike Commons, Ron McGarry, Frank Kirkup.
Forest were skippered by City Ground legend, Bobby McKinlay and he and fellow Scot, Bobby Brown, met in the middle for the toss of the coin.
Colin Booth opened the scoring for white-shirted Forest and they held on to that advantage until Ron McGarry’s equaliser twenty minutes from the end.
The Nottingham Reds finished the stronger, though, with Len Julians grabbing the match winner.
That proved to be McGarry’s last goal for Reds and a month later he was transferred to Bolton Wanderers.
Six years later, in 1968, we were on the Cup trail again and had to travel for a Second Round tie at Doncaster Rovers’ old Belle Vue ground.
Like us, they were members of the Fourth Division at the time so a 1-1 draw and the prospect of a midweek replay was considered a satisfactory outcome.
Brian Tinnion scored the Reds goal that day to the delight of a coach load of travelling supporters in the 9,000 attendance.
Our only Football League outing on this day resulted in a 2-0 defeat at Crewe Alexandra in 1973.
In contrast, Reds celebrated their only win on the 6th back in 1990 when we recorded a 3-1 home success over Worksop Town who were managed by a former Borough Park favourite, Tommy Spencer.
Graeme Nicholson, Duncan Armstrong and Keith Glover all netted for Reds in what was just our second home win of the season!
Reds 1996 home game against Alfreton Town was eventful to say the least and probably best remembered for our goalkeeper, Lee Copeland, being sent off by namesake referee Mr Copeland!
Alfreton had already missed a penalty but eventually won 2-1 with emergency goalkeeper, Graham Caton, conceding the winner. Garry Wright scored our goal.
We conceded three goals in the last twenty minutes of a home clash against Harrogate Town in 2001 and could have no complaints about the 3-0 defeat. It might have been different had Grant Holt scored from a first half penalty but he was thwarted by Paul Allen’s fine save.
And Craig Johnston also had a penalty saved when we hosted Scarborough in a Conference North fixture in 2007. It proved a costly miss as Tony Hackworth netted a late winner to secure a first Scarborough success at Borough Park.
Our most recent outing on this day was six years ago when we played a midweek friendly at Annan Athletic. Brandon Robertson’s fine individual goal opened the scoring but the Galabank side levelled matters soon after.
