The story behind the picture – A pleasant August evening in Keswick

It’s not often we get invited by other clubs to play a ‘ground opening match’ so it was an honour when Keswick did just that on 8 August, 2011.

They asked us to play in a game which officially opened their new facilities at Fitz Park and we were more than happy to accept the invitation.

Before kick-off, Reds skipper, the late Tony Hopper, presented an engraved salver to Keswick and former Workington captain, Martin Kirkby.

The photograph shows Tony and Martin with the match referee, Kenny Brown, who had served Reds as assistant manager during the Tommy Cassidy era.

Richard Bannister, who had a successful stint playing for Reds Reserves, opened the scoring for Keswick with a spectacular goal but Workington, wearing sky blue on the night, eventually won 6-1 thanks to strikes from Dan Dillon, Stuart Green, Jake Simpson, Gareth Arnison, Mark Boyd (almost as good as Bannister’s goal) and Simon Tucker. A crowd of 250 enjoyed the entertainment on a beautiful Monday evening.