MATCH PREVIEW: Reds host Holy Blues
Who spent more seasons in the Football League – Workington or Gainsborough Trinity?
Most people would probably offer Workington as the answer and they would be right to do so but Gainsborough Trinity had been members of the Football League long before our club was re-formed!
Trinity spent sixteen seasons in the Football League between 1896 and 1912 and achieved five top ten finishes in the Second Division (there were just two divisions at the time). Reds enjoyed twenty-six seasons in the League between 1951 and 1977 and, it was after losing our Fourth Division status, we started meeting Gainsborough on a regular basis in the Northern Premier League.
The two sides have now met 46 times (plus once in a friendly) and Trinity hold the bragging rights in matches played in the Northern Premier League and Conference North and also have the edge in cup encounters.
In twenty-five NPL meetings, Trinity have recorded twelve wins compared to just four Workington successes with nine games resulting in a draw.
We met eighteen times in Conference North and Trinity won on seven occasions, Reds managed six victories with five matches drawn.
We once recorded a NPL Challenge Cup victory at Northolme but Trinity have beaten us in two other cup clashes, one of which was in the Trophy twenty years ago.
The most recent setback was in November when we fell to a 3-0 reverse in Lincolnshire.
After wonderful runs in both Cup and Trophy, getting through five rounds in each, Russ Wilcox’s side are now finishing a superb campaign with some solid results in the league and could yet feature in the play-offs.
They are currently 10th with 48 points and have a game in hand on all the teams above them in the Premier Division table. Their away record has been impressive (seven wins, five draws) and they have collected more points on the road (26) than they have at home (22).
They won at Blyth Spartans on Tuesday and are currently fourth in the form table, based on the last six matches.
Last season, Declan Howe and David Symington were involved in a shoot-out to finish top scorer – Declan got the Golden Boot in the end – and this term Howe and Steven Rigg are slugging it out at the top of the goal-scoring charts with both currently on seventeen league goals.
Steven Swinglehurst has now completed his two-match suspension, so will come back into contention, but Jordan Little has one match to serve.
Workington have pieced together a very unusual sequence since New Year’s Day, developing a pattern of lose two, win two and they go into Saturday’s tussle on the back of the following run:
LLWWLLWWLLW (?)
It would be remarkable to maintain that sequence with another W but, probably, unlikely.
Kick-off 3pm
