Borough Park – the movie
- 5 days ago
- 7 min read
Featuring at least three managers, forty-six players, a bit of slap-stick, drama, despair, a charity like no other, suspense, heartache, anger, elation, pure joy, fantasy and……..a happy ending.
It was more low-budget than a blockbuster epic, about ten months in the making and required 20,000 passionate extras. A cast of thousands.
This was no Netflix wonder production (although more about that later), just a dramatic, unusual season as Workington AFC said a fond farewell to Borough Park.
The big build-up says it all. The recently ended 2025-26 season had a bit of everything and if ever a campaign, that was one point away from failure, yet close to an open-top celebratory bus tour around the town, this was it.
Even those with a pretty low IQ had an idea that Workington AFC would find life rather difficult throughout the 2025-26 season, and so it proved. Few, if any, were predicting that the mighty Reds would feature in the end of season play-offs, a few more of the optimistic sector probably hoped for mid-table mediocrity but the vast majority sensed it would be a long hard slog battling relegation.
The older players in the squad were living on borrowed time, the younger ones were not quite ready for the rigours of Northern Premier League football. A recipe for……..
It was not meant to be like that. Our final season at Borough Park demanded a fitting end and, eventually, somewhere between triumph and despair, the ‘Old Lady’ got a decent send off.
Pre-season backed up what we already feared – the numbers were good, the quality less so.
And a busy, unproductive August underlined that our 39th season in the NPL would be one of fighting for survival rather than glory.
Six league matches played, one solitary point obtained, and out of the FA Cup at the first hurdle.
Luck was probably against us in the opener versus Whitby Town when a first half lead evaporated and the visitors took all three points with a 94th minute winner. Some guy called Tymon, a second half substitute for Town, was introduced and, no doubt, changed the flow of the game.
We didn’t know it at the time, but that was the first of twenty points dropped from winning positions.
September was a little more productive, in terms of points, and that elusive first win came at Bamber Bridge and, yes, stoppage time winners are so much more enjoyable when they are in your favour! A decent home draw against FC United of Manchester followed, a narrow defeat at the eventual champions Hebburn (again after being in front) and a home draw v. Prescot Cables suggested we were finding our feet.
But, then, a poor display at Ilkeston and an even more damming, performance in the FA Trophy prompted the Board to take action. Darren Edmondson was relieved of his duties ahead of a free Saturday – so a bit of breathing space for all concerned.
Edmo had just one victory to his credit, a couple of draws and nine defeats to be taken into account, and the ‘long hard winter’ had kicked in before Autumn had started.
Brian Dawson stepped into the breach as interim manager and two more league defeats preceded a Cumberland Cup tie, but even an emphatic win over Whitehaven couldn’t mask the general concern.
Brian Dawson signed off with a win at Stocksbridge Park Steels before the announcement that Billy Barr would become the new manager was made.
Billy, a Reds player twenty-five years ago, made his technical area debut on the second Saturday of November and, somehow, came up with our first home win of the season – at the ninth attempt!
The players, man-for-man, were the same as the previous week except for Billy’s first recruit for Workington, Tyler Magloire.
We had been short of goals throughout the early months of the season so to get three (and the win) in Billy’s first game was just what the doctor ordered. Another three goals the following week suggested that this managerial lark was easy and quite straightforward after all.
Having won against Hyde United on debut, Billy had to familiarise himself with the squad he had inherited, where it needed surgery and who he could recruit to make us a better team. And whilst assessing the situation and laying the foundations for the much-needed improvement, the manager had to do so with one arm tied behind his back – sometimes both.
Loan players were recruited, did well for us and were then recalled by their parent clubs – Hayden Atkinson, Daniel Ogwuru and Luke Hunter come to mind. Magloire left on good terms and joined Port Vale, injuries to Dav Symington and Steven Rigg drastically reduced their participation whilst red cards for Jordan Little, Charlie Barnes, Brad Carroll and Barnes, again, not forgetting the general run-of-the-mill injuries, made the task even more difficult.
December suggested otherwise – three defeats in three outings – but there was a marked improvement in performances.
Four draws in January did provide a bit of momentum but it could have been so much better. Lancaster equalised against us in the 97th minute, FC United also hurt us with two late goals after we had established a two-goal advantage, Hebburn defeated us on our patch via a ‘strange’ penalty and Prescot equalised with an 88th minute leveller.
So, throughout December and January, the winless sequence was keeping us entrenched in the relegation zone despite performances hinting the revival was underway.
Billy’s second win, almost three months after the first, came on the first Saturday of February with Steven Rigg’s final goal of his injury interrupted season clinching the points against Ilkeston.
What a confidence booster that was.
And, after sixty-three minutes at Gainsborough Trinty the following week, the ‘R’ word was never mentioned. Three goals ahead and coasting to victory over a decent Trinity side, we showed our vulnerability by conceding three in less than ten minutes and had to settle for just the one point.
Another great performance without getting the job done!
But ten points obtained in February earned Mr Barr one ‘fully deserved’ ‘Manager of the Month’ accolade.
And another ten points in March, culminating in probably our best display of the season, a 3-0 victory over title favourites Hednesford Town, catapulted us up to 16th position in the table. Nose bleed time.
Yet having got out of trouble and with the opportunity to push towards mid-table, we reverted to type and became a nervous watch all of sudden. So near and yet so far!
Defeat at Warrington Rylands, a home draw v. Cleethorpes Town and another setback at Ashton United suggested all the good work had been undone in eight days of madness.
After forty-five minutes at Warrington Town, we looked worse than we were in August and September only to be followed by the most bizarre half of football we have witnessed for many a year. Probably since we won at Cantilever Park in identical circumstances thirty-one years earlier!
Three goals and an amazing victory, the winner coming from Tom Stephenson – his first of an injury ravaged campaign – had us all in tears, and the great escape had, in the most dramatic scenario, been completed.
Remarkable.
If you are aware of Reds’ fragile mentality, you would have backed Leek Town to win the last ever game at Borough Park. It was a cert! However, we gave them a good game, and it was fairly even, but they had the pleasure of scoring the last ever NPL goal on the ground, our home for eighty-nine years.
Despite the loss, our seventeenth of the season, it was a wonderful occasion.
At the start of the day, we had over seventy Workington ‘old boys’ completing an emotional lap of honour around the pitch. Then, after the match, we cheered our boys of 2026 as they, too, walked to every corner of the ground to acknowledge the magnificent crowd.
I’m not one for celebrating failure, as such, but this was a special occasion and, having been at the foot of the table for much of the season, this felt like an achievement.
We didn’t get that goal the big crowd craved but the entire squad will, forever, remember what will become an iconic moment in the long, proud history of the club.
Despite avoiding the drop by the narrowest of margins, Borough Park attracted over 20,000 fans through the turnstiles between August and April with the league aggregate attendance, a commendable 18,419. Those numbers produced a stunning 921 average – the best at the ground since the final season in the Football League (76-77).
The final day attendance (2,387) was the second largest crowd for a NPL game at Borough Park.
The best win of the season was the 3-0 scoreline inflicted upon Hednesford Town, the heaviest defeat was the 0-6 mauling we suffered at Stockton Town.
Reds’ best unbeaten sequence put together was from the end of January until the end of March, a series of nine matches (DWDWWDWWW).
The longest run without a win stretched to twelve games from mid-November until the first Saturday in February (DLDDLLLDDDLD).
Including the League programme, the FA Cup, FA Trophy and Cumberland Cup matches, Reds played 45 matches over the course of the season and forty-six players were used in those games.
Alex Mitchell (36), Jack Dickinson (36), Jordan Little (36), Luke Ellis (34) and Josh Galloway (31) were the most consistent starters. Twenty players pulled on the Reds shirt for the first time.
Hayden Atkinson, Dan Hopper and Jake Allan (Carlisle United), Brad Carroll (Bury), Ne Jai Tucker (Southport), Daniel Ogwuru (Morecambe) and Luke Hunter (AFC Fylde) all represented the club as loan players.
Five players (Dav Symington, Alex Mitchell, Steven Rigg, Brad Carroll and Ceiran Casson) captained the side at various stages.
Seventeen players got their names on the scoresheet with Steven Rigg and Dan Hopper leading the way in the league with 6 goals each.
Reds recorded league doubles against Hyde United and Stocksbridge Park Steels but Hebburn Town, Stockton Town and Warrington Rylands won, home and away, at our expense.
Alex Mitchell kept nine clean sheets and saved one penalty throughout the mo season, Danny Eccles had one shut-out to his credit.
Workington scored sixteen goals in the Cumberland Cup (no team scored more) but were ‘removed’ from the competition prior to the final. That meant Josh Palmer (3) and Dan Hopper (2) were ‘deducted’ the goals they scored in the semi-final.
