THANKS to our respective victories in last night's FA Trophy games, we have set up a third round meeting with Workington on Saturday, 31 January at Brough Park.
The Reds have seen off table toppers Tamworth (1-0), big spending Kings Lynn (4-3) and local rivals Barrow (3-0) to reach this stage, and while they might only sit in 18th place in the Blue Square North table, they are five points above the relegation places and have only lost once in their last eight matches.
Like our visit to Holker Street a few weeks ago, this encounter will bring back memories of clashes in The Football League, when the Workington Reds were regular opponents.
After a number of clubs playing in the town from 1890 onwards, the new Workington AFC was born in 1921 and immediately joined the North Eastern League. During the 1933/4 season, the club managed its best-ever FA Cup performance, reaching the 4th round, before losing to Preston North End.
Later in the decade, the club moved to its present home, Borough Park and in 1951 they were voted into the Third Division North of The Football League replacing New Brighton.
Their first season in the League was a sign of things to come; the club finishing rock bottom, and only improving by one place the following year. Between 1954 and 1955 the club was managed by Bill Shankly, later to go on to success with Liverpool.
During the 1957/8 season they played the Manchester United team known as the Busby Babes at home in the 3rd round of the FA Cup, attracting a record crowd of 21,000. However, at the end of that season, the club dropped into the Fourth Division when the League was reorganised.
In 1964, player-manager Ken Furphy led them into third position, earning promotion to the Third Division. During both the 1963/4 and 1964/5 season, they made it to the quarter-finals of the League Cup, where they lost to West Ham United and Chelsea (in a replay) respectively. During the latter cup run, the club beat Cumbrian neighbours Barrow 9-1, a record which remained until the mid-1980s.
In 1966, they finished in 5th place, narrowly missing out on promotion to the Second Division, but next year finished bottom, and were relegated back to the Fourth Division. In 1974 and 1975 the club finished 23rd out of 24 and in 1976 they finished bottom.
A year later they won only four games, and again finished bottom of the League with attendances falling well below the 1,000-mark. This poor run led to the club being voted out of the League in the summer of 1977, being replaced by Wimbledon.
Workington dropped into the Northern Premier League (NPL), but failed to trouble the top teams, never finishing higher than seventh, before they were relegated to the NPL First Division in 1988.
They continued to struggle, eventually being relegated to the North West Counties League in 1998, but managed to win the League at their first attempt (also their first ever championship).
As a result of a seventh place finish in 2004, the club moved up to the NPL's Premier Division during the non-league restructuring. They then continued their upward movement by winning the first-ever NPL promotion play-offs (after finishing in second place) to clinch promotion to the Conference North.
Following a mid-table finish in their first season in Conference North, the 2006-07 season saw Workington finish in third place and qualify for the promotion play-offs where they lost 2-1 against Hinckley United.
In the current squad are a number of players known from their association with Carlisle United, Lee Andrews, Kyle May and Shaun Vipond. While player manager Darren Edmondson had a long career at Brunton Park and he has recently brought youngster Darren Campion in on loan from United.
