Déjà vu
When Darren Edmondson agreed to return to Borough Park and manage Reds for the second time, he became one of few who have taken on the job more than once.
The others who ‘came back for more’ can be counted on one hand and include Colin Meldrum, Wayne Harrison, Gavin Skelton and, most recently, Danny Grainger.
Already, the longest serving manager in the club’s history, Darren originally occupied the Borough Park hot seat from September 2007 until December 2013 and during that time was in charge of team affairs for 311 competitive matches, 258 of those were under the Conference North banner, the remainder a combination of play-off fixtures and various cup ties.
During his tenure, he established the club as a good solid mid-table outfit at Step 2, even having one crack at the play-offs after a 4th place finish at the end of the 2009-10 campaign.
In his six, plus, years at the helm, Reds enjoyed cup glory too, reaching the First Round proper of the FA Cup in his first season and becoming FA Trophy giant-killers with outstanding victories over the likes of Tamworth, Rushden & Diamonds, AFC Wimbledon and Barrow, as well as gallant failure in matches against Stevenage and Wrexham.
Reds picked up an FA Trophy Team of the Round accolade, Darren received a ‘manager of the month award’, and there was Cumberland Cup success thrown in for good measure.
Things didn’t go quite as well in his seventh season as manager and he left before Christmas to take over our south of county neighbours, Barrow.
Overall, though, plenty to be proud of during his spell at the club and a reputation he won’t want to damage second time around.
“Everyone always says, ‘don’t go back’, but my thought process is that mainly refers to a player trying to relive former glories, whereas as a manager you get older and supposedly wiser and it would have been very difficult to turn down the opportunity to come back,” said Edmondson shortly after his appointment, adding, “It was a no brainer.”
Emulating his previous achievements will be difficult but how have his predecessors faired on their return to Borough Park?
Gavin Skelton’s outstanding first season as player manager meant any subsequent return would register as an almost impossible task.
In his first spell in the hot seat, he guided the team to a runners-up berth in the NPL Premier Division, with Reds amassing 90 points from twenty-seven victories and nine draws, a fantastic achievement made all the more remarkable because Skelton made more league appearances (44) than any other outfield player that season.
He was always going to be on a hiding to nothing when he returned briefly, very briefly, during the first week of 2019 and it was probably circumstances at Carlisle United which prompted him to apply for the post anyway. Gav was in charge for two games (a draw and a defeat) before doing a U turn and returning to Brunton Park, a decision definitely vindicated over time.
Wayne Harrison also fell into the ‘player-manager category’ during his first spell at the helm as he managed Reds both in the eighties and nineties.
Now living in America and still coaching and teaching the finer arts of the game after a distinguished career as player and coach, Wayne was a youngster, 28, when he took on the manager’s job for the first time at the start of the 1985-86 season.
He guided Reds to a commendable 8th position in the NPL Premier Division and played in the majority of the games, with only three teams losing fewer than Reds’ (ten defeats) that season. The second campaign was rather more difficult with an inferior squad and Wayne left after managing 77 games in his first stint.
When he returned early in 1995, the task was simply to keep Reds in the NPL First Division and he did that, albeit it after a dramatic finish to a disappointing season.
Big wins in the Cup (8-1 v. Hebburn) and Trophy (7-1 at Rothwell Town) and Cumberland success overshadowed mediocre league form but, no doubt about it, Wayne did a great job throughout his 188 games at the helm, winning no fewer than sixty of those matches.
Danny Grainger felt it was a case of ‘unfinished business’ when he returned for his second spell at Borough Park, having previously held the reins during the two Covid-interrupted seasons.
Workington were within touching distance of a first NPL title and were top of the North West division when the ’19-20 season was curtailed in mid-March due to the Covid pandemic. The following season started but was declared ‘null and void’ before Christmas, leaving Danny frustrated by a global event which brought havoc to much more important matters than football.
By June, he had taken up an offer to become the assistant manager of Falkirk, a move that looked attractive at the time but the grass on their 4G pitch was not necessarily greener than the real stuff at Borough Park.
And after a successful, one-off season with Chris Willcock in charge, Danny returned to west Cumbria for a second spell.
Danny eventually got Reds to the play-offs and clinched promotion in his third, albeit first, completed season. A record victory in the Cumberland Cup final followed to complete a rare, welcome double.
In his fourth season, Reds maintained their newly found Premier Division status and retained the Cumberland Cup but ‘DG’ announced he would be stepping down come the end of the season.
With an overall record of 85 wins (in league and cup) from his 151 games in charge, Danny proved that returning to Borough Park for a second spell was not such a bad idea after all.
Colin Meldrum managed Workington not once, not twice but three times with two of those spells during our last few years as a struggling Football League outfit and then when we were at our lowest ebb as a non-league club.
He certainly had something to offer as a coach and one of our all-time greats once told me that Meldrum was as good as any of the many coaches he had worked with but his downfall was his wayward lifestyle.
A Glaswegian who started his career at Arsenal but starred at Reading, had played against the Reds several times in the sixties and seventies.
He became more familiar in 1974 when he was appointed manager, succeeding George Aitken and the temporary stint of Brian Wood.
A nine-match unbeaten run soon after his arrival was just the tonic we all needed as another re-election battle loomed. Colin picked up a manager of the month award as he restored some belief to a squad languishing at the wrong end of the Fourth Division.
But the novelty disappeared just as quickly as it had arrived and we were soon losing matches again. Colin was shown the door before the end of the season.
Less than two years later, he was back again but the magic didn’t work in his second stint and a 6-1 defeat in his first game back in the dug-out didn’t help. Only two victories were obtained and he was sacked again at the end of the ’76-77 campaign.
Fast forward a decade from our Football League demise and Colin was employed by the Borough Park hierarchy for a third time. This time, in his defence, the club was in the midst of our worst ever era and although he guided the team to five wins, he was also in charge when we suffered record defeats at Goole Town (1-8) and Chorley (0-9).
His three spells as manager all ended in disappointment and the stats did him no favours at all – thirteen wins, eleven draws and thirty-seven defeats, plus the small matter of 132 goals conceded!
Managers will continue to come and go and the hope is that all make a positive contribution to the cause, be it their first stint at Borough Park or a second or third attempt!
