BOROUGH PARK MEMORIES: NPL President’s Cup Final 2004

Having won the President’s Cup twenty years earlier, Reds again reached the two-legged final in 2004 and, second time around, faced neighbours Barrow on a ‘home and away’ basis.

After winning the Cup in 1984 on the ‘away goals’ rule, in a low scoring final, we lost by the same ruling in what some described, at the time, as glorious failure.

The President’s Cup format was completely different to when we lifted the trophy at the end of the 1983-84 season. For the 2003-04 campaign, the President’s Cup was a ‘plate’ competition with the teams qualifying after failure in the League’s Challenge Cup.

All Second Round losers went into the President’s Cup and we found ourselves in the latter after a penalty shoot-out defeat to Altrincham at Borough Park.

We received home draws in the first three rounds of the President’s Cup and progressed to the final after overcoming Frickley Athletic (3-1), Lancaster City (1-0) and Harrogate Town (4-3 on penalties after a 4-4 draw), the Harrogate tie at the semi-final stage.

In the final, we faced Barrow with the first leg at Holker Street in early April. The Bluebirds emerged 3-2 winners before a 1,151 attendance with Simon Tucker and Paul O’Neill scoring the Workington goals, the latter’s late strike giving us hope for the return on the last Tuesday of the month.

The second leg took place in Workington on 27 April, 2004 and, considering it was a final as well as a Cumbrian derby, it was a cracker.

Barrow had finished the regular season in third position in the Premier Division whilst Reds ended the campaign seventh in the First.

Already trailing by one goal after the first meeting, Reds actually won the second leg 4-3, producing an aggregate score of 6-6. But it meant Barrow would lift the trophy on the ‘away goals’ rule.

A crowd of 1,598 packed the Borough Park terraces and Tommy Cassidy named the following team:

Kevin Wolfe, Alan Gray, Paul O’Neill, Will Varty (captain), Mathew Henney, John Wharton, Robert Ennis, Ryan McCluskey, Craig Johnston, Steve Archibald, David Hewson. Substitutes - Stuart Moffat, Graham Goulding and Glenn Murray (all used).

Glenn Murray had scored in three of the earlier rounds but a fall out with the manager led to his omission for the Borough Park fixture although, thankfully, he did make a late appearance as a substitute.

Barrow opened the scoring before Craig Johnston equalised via a controversial penalty. Matt Henney headed home a Will Varty free-kick to put Reds in front at half time. It remained that way until the 84th minute when Michael Rankine restored parity on the night for Barrow but a goal that would have given them the cup at that point.

Back came Reds and a superb Paul O’Neill header put Reds ahead again but the final score of 3-2 meant the tie would go into extra time.

Rob Ennis netted in the 100th minute of extra time and, at 4-2, it looked as though the trophy would be ours.

Barrow’s Neil Campbell had other ideas, though, and his goal, the eighth of the evening five minutes before the end, concluded the scoring at 6-6 (on aggregate).

A fantastic game but an outcome which meant the cup would be heading to Holker Street, after one of the most dramatic cup finals staged at Borough Park.