MATCH PREVIEW: Reds’ season to go to the wire, literally

Two crucial league games remaining in our thirty-ninth campaign of Northern Premier football and, as things stand, there is still work to do.

Even now, as we go into our thirty-ninth match of a testing season, there are numerous permutations and scenarios that could happen.

Saturday’s game v. Warrington Town at The Cal. Delivery Stadium is another tough, looking fixture and it would be silly to think that Billy Barr will go there with a full-strength squad.

Since his arrival, back in November, he has suffered more than his fair share of match-day absenteeism and he may know his ‘best XI’ but getting them out on the pitch together is a different matter entirely.

Until this season, Town and Reds have been playing their football at different levels of the pyramid over the past few years.  Town established themselves as one of the top NPL Premier Division outfits, pre and post Covid, and as we were getting promoted in 2023, they too enjoyed play-off glory to reach the National League North, where they spent two seasons.

They suffered relegation last year but one would expect them to become title contenders, once again, next season after their mid-table finish this term.

The fixture goes back to the ‘90-91 season with Town able to boast of bragging rights having beaten us on seven occasions in the league, compared to our five victories, with nine games drawn in the twenty-one matches played to date.

We have done slightly better at Cantilever Park than we have in Cumbria, and our visit on Saturday will bring memories flooding back from that unforgettable night (for Workington supporters) towards the end of the ’94-95 season.

We needed a win to help us stay-up, Town needed the points to seal promotion.  And it was the Reds who emerged victorious thanks to that wonderful (perfect) hat-trick from Martin Henderson in a 3-2 victory.

It was never a well-supported fixture in those days with many of the battles between us attracting gates well below the 200 mark.

Town are a well-established club now, though, with the infrastructure in place, and it has been interesting comparing their growth to our decades of ‘treading water’.

The November meeting at Borough Park resulted in a 1-1 draw with Reds performing well on the day.  Paul Carden’s side opened the scoring, with a fine Max Thompson header, but Dav Symington maintained his decent scoring record against Town with the equaliser.

Kick-off: 3pm

Mileage: 137

Postcode: WA4 2RS