MATCH PREVIEW: Reds and the FA Youth Cup

After bowing out of one FA competition at the weekend, Workington will take part in another national knock-out tournament at Borough Park on Wednesday.

The young Reds get their turn in the FA Youth Cup when they face neighbours Penrith in a Preliminary Round tie under the lights (7.30pm).

They played Penrith in the competition six years ago, also at Borough Park, and emerged 7-2 winners, their best ever home win in the competition.

Matches in the Youth Cup are so unpredictable with teams often making a start in the competition before commencing their league season. That will be the case on Wednesday with Reds and the young Bonny Blues having no real information on each other.

The Reds group have had a mixed pre-season, winning at Queen of the South and Kendal Town but losing heavily at Gretna 2008 and Carlisle United. But most of the pre-season action took place in July with it proving difficult arranging later friendlies against local teams, who had started their regular season.

Conor Cooke and Gary Jackson will be in charge of the team this term and they will compete in the JPL, as they did last season.

Several members of the squad will already be familiar to Reds fans having featured for the seniors in some of the pre-season outings.

Workington first entered the FA Youth Cup back in 1963 and recorded a 4-0 victory over Carlisle United in the inaugural fixture. Mike Rogan and Brian Tinnion featured in that match and went on to enjoy distinguished careers throughout the sixties and seventies.

Playing for Carlisle United that night was Brian Heslop who also had an excellent career, including a spell serving Workington in our last few seasons as a league club.

Life-long Workington supporter, Tom Allen, also represented Reds’ U18s sixty-two years ago when a Stan Herbert hat-trick helped us overcome the Brunton Park side. Tom recalls playing in those early ties and, on one occasion, turned out in a pair of Ken Furphy’s boots which he’d borrowed for the night!

That maiden win was, for a while, our only success in the competition and Wigan Athletic, twice, Carlisle and Barrow all ended our interest in those early years.

We didn’t partake in the competition for three decades after our Football League days but when we re-entered in 2000, we did so for ten consecutive seasons.

In the 2000-01 season, which included a win at Rossendale United and a home defeat by Doncaster Rovers, goalkeeper, Scott Carson, played for the Reds in both matches.

Never, at any stage, did we progress to the later stages of the competition – a win here, two wins there – but we did provide an opportunity for many west Cumbrian footballers to play in a national competition.

The other aim, of course, was to prepare players for the first team – take them out of their comfort zone and give them that experience of travel from Cumbria to play in proper stadia. A high percentage didn’t even make the first team but quite a few did.

Some weird and wonderful score lines have been recorded in the competition and none more so than a home match against Burscough in 2005! We lost 11-0.

In contrast, we did register a ‘rugby-score’ win ourselves, a 13-0 victory at Hebburn Town when three players – Adam Meagan, Robbie Hebson and Liam Studholme all chipped in with a hat-trick.

On three occasions, the Workington youngsters were involved in penalty shoot-outs and emerged winners each time.

In recent seasons, Reds made brave exits at Pickering Town and York City and, last year, fell at the first hurdle losing at home to Whickham.

Joe Palmer scored for Reds in the 2020 defeat at Hebburn whilst younger brother, Josh, netted our consolation goal in the loss at Pickering two years ago.

The winners of Wednesday’s tie will have home advantage against Spennymoor Town in the First Qualifying Round.