A season’s best 1,180 watched Workington’s nail-biting draw with NPL West title rivals Warrington Rylands.
Matty Clarke’s stunning 25-yarder in the 82nd minute meant honours were even at 1-1 and the dight for the title goes on.
But spare a thought for two Reds regulars who should have taken the official attendance to 1,182 but ended up in accident and emergency.
One of them, in his excitement to get to Borough Park, caught his fingers when he closed his car door on Tesco car park and needed hospital treatment.
The other, clearly also anxious to get to his usual standing place, tripped and fell down some steps and also needed attention at hospital.
The upshot was that the two were together in accident and emergency and watched the live scoreboard updates on their phones – instead of witnessing the actual contest.
It is not recorded how they celebrated the brilliant equaliser but in view of their earlier calamities, a tad gingerly might have been how it played out!
In fact there would have been three extra at the game because a third visitor to A& E had also planned to go to the match.
He was just getting changed when he got a phone call to say his daughter had cut her foot badly on a broken glass and needed taking to hospital. He knew one of the other absent Reds fans so they had a good catch-up having previously worked together at Smiths.
By one of those strange quirks of fate the big game at Borough Park was actually sponsored by a group of former colleagues from Smiths.
After his sensational equaliser Clarke went on to receive the official man of the match award afterwards in the Shankly Bar from the game’s sponsors, the ex-works pals from Smiths.
Chairman Dave Bowden said: “Matty impressed us all. He’s a very modest lad and was telling everybody it was a cross. It was a brilliant finish, goal of the season so far.”
The contrast on the two benches was stark. Celebrations on one, deep disappointment on the other. Rylands admitted afterwards they thought they had done enough to win the game, and with it the title and were undone by a remarkable goal!
