Another member of Workington Reds’ promotion-winning team from 1963/64 has died.
Left-winger Geoff Martin, who was 81, played 167 League and Cup games for the Reds, scoring 34 goals.
He had joined Reds in December, 1962, in a swap deal with Carlisle United – a left winger for a left winger!
Frank Kirkup, who had made 162 appearances for Reds, moved to Brunton Park and as part of the deal the west Cumbrians also received £3,500.
It was good business by the Reds for although Kirkup was the more skilful player and had been popular with the fans, Martin proved to be an outstanding recruit.
Strong, direct and a workaholic, Martin fitted perfectly into the team that manager Ken Furphy was building and was a key member of the team that went on to finish third in Division Three the following season.
Reds played 53 League and Cup games that season and Martin played in all but one – a 3-1 defeat at eventual champions Gillingham.
When interviewed after he had retired about his time at Workington, Martin recalled: “Three games in our promotion season were very special occasions.
“The first was a 2-2 draw with Carlisle United when over 18,500 were crammed into Borough Park and the atmosphere was something else.
“The second was the 2-0 win at Bradford City to secure promotion and the third was the final game of the season when we drew 0-0 with another promoted side, Exeter City.
“There were fantastic celebrations in the ground at the end of the game.”
Martin had joined Chesterfield from Parkhouse Colliery in the summer of 1957, at the age of 17 after he had been working as a pony driver down the pit.
It had been a boyhood dream to play for his local club and after a season in the youth team, he signed professional in October 1958.
He made his first-team debut at outside-left against Halifax Town on December 20 of that year but the Spireites were struggling, with only one win in the previous 15 games, and he was left out after just two games.
He was given a free transfer in May 1960 and unexpectedly was picked-up by Leeds United, newly-relegated from Division One.
He made his Leeds debut in their Football League Cup match against his old club, Chesterfield, winning 4-0 but he didn’t feature in the plans of new manager Don Revie and was allowed to leave for Darlington in the summer of 1961.
Given regular first-team football he played 20 league games and scored six goals, and more importantly caught the eye of future Reds boss Ken Furphy, a team-mate at Feethams.
He joined Carlisle and helped them to promotion in the 1961/62 season (where they stayed up for only one season) but he played only twice in Division Three before being transferred to Workington in December 1962.
At Borough Park he enjoyed the most settled and successful period of his career.
Later he said: “The four players I recall as being the mainstays of the side were Bobby Brown, Jimmy Moran, Dave Carr and Ken Furphy. The manager, Ken, got then best out of us and gave everything as a player and a manager and his enthusiasm rubbed off on the rest of us.
“George Aitken was trainer and he made us run round the dog track on Lonsdale Park five days a week. We never did any ball work apart from a five-a-side on Fridays.
“The highlight in 1964/65 was going to star studded Blackburn Rovers in the League Cup. No-one gave us a chance but we played them off the park and won 5-1.”
Before Reds lost their place in Division Three, Martin had moved to Grimsby playing 71 games in 18 months, before his final move back to home town club Chesterfield where it had all started.
He played 43 times for Chesterfield second time round but in the 1969/70 season, when the club challenged for promotion, he played with a knee injury that required careful management.
But a month before the team went to the top of the league for the first time, he was forced to retire, at the age of 29.
His contribution to Chesterfield’s 1969/70 season was recognised with the award of a Fourth Division championship medal.
After retiring he took up employment at Clay Cross Works and managed their football team. He was working for the National Coal Board at the Wingerworth Carbonisation Plant when ill-health forced early retirement in 1990.
