Cumberland County League
Benevolent Cup Final
Friday 25th April 2025
Kick Off 19.00 On Time!
Workington Juniors 0 Maryport Athletic 3, attendance 115
37’ 0-1
71’ 0-2
81’ 0-3
@ Workington Town R.L.F.C.
Derwent Park
Church Street
Workington
CA14 2HG
£3 Admission
No Programme.
Tonight was an opportunity to tick off a rugby league ground for football. Workington F.C. are rumoured to be going to play games here during the redevelopment of their Borough Park ground, some time in future, but I decided to come tonight, just in case those rumours don’t come to fruition. I’d already seen rugby league played here, back in November 1992, when Workington Town beat Nottingham City 68-0 in a Division 3 match and the ground remains pretty much as I remember it. It was just named Derwent Park in those days, but is currently known as Fibrus Community Stadium for sponsorship reasons. The ground has a listed capacity of 10,000, with a record attendance of 17,741 for a game against Wigan in 1965. There’s one side of seating, with covered standing opposite and oval ends behind the goals, that have grass banking at one end and open terracing at the other. The pitch is surrounded by a speedway track, but no one rides here anymore, not since Workington Comets left in 2018 for their new track less than a mile away.
Workington Juniors are top of Division 1, having won the league with 17 wins and just one defeat, whilst Maryport Athletic are sitting top of the Premier Division, still undefeated, with 10 wins and 3 draws. They play away at second in the table Cockermouth in the season finale, in a game Cockermouth have to win to snatch the title, as they go into the game two points adrift of the leaders.
Tonight’s game was very even first half, with no hint of them playing at different levels to each other. There had been very few proper goal scoring opportunities up until Maryport broke the deadlock eight minutes before halftime, heading in from a corner, where the ‘keeper was beaten to the ball as he attempted to punch clear. The second half saw Maryport looking the more likely to add to the goal tally and it was little surprise when they made it 0-2 with nineteen minutes left, when a diagonal ball into the box was finished from close range and they killed the game off when they scored again with nine minutes left, when a free kick into the box was headed against the post and rebounded straight back against the player and ended up in the bottom corner. He certainly can’t claim he meant it. We would have completed the game in daylight, despite the 7 o’clock kick off, but the floodlights were turned on for the last twenty minutes.
Excellent ground tick and well worth the five and a half hour drive north to Cumbria. At least I won’t be driving back until tomorrow, having opted for an overnight stop in Cockermouth, before taking in a game on the way home.
