Keswick and Penrith AFC first team will meet for the first time in almost 30 years as they battle it out for a Fred Conway Cumberland Cup semi-
final spot this Saturday.
Hosts Keswick are among the front runners in Division I of the Westmorland League while a young Penrith squad are showing signs of improvement in the competitive Northern League first division.
Poor weather before and after Christmas has hampered both sides’ attempts to string together a run of games ahead of the tie. But respective managers Mike Frampton and Darren Edmondson said this week they are relishing the derby clash at Crosthwaite Road (1-30pm kick-off).
Frampton is set to be without three or four key players but insisted: “We’ll give them a real game. When you’re playing Penrith you want all your players there. It’s a tough ask anyway. But we’ll still put out a good team and try to give it our best.
“It should be a big occasion. It will generate a lot of interest I would have thought.”
Frampton’s cousin, Kevin, played for Penrith during a successful spell at the club’s former Southend Road stadium. More recently another Keswick-based player, Steven Rigg, broke goalscoring records at the Blues’ Frenchfield Park home before stepping up to the professional ranks when he signed for Carlisle United.
“We’re close to Penrith anyway, but we’ve always had one or two links. I just think there’s a good interest in Keswick with some of the lads who play for Penrith now being from the Westmorland League – (Andy) Murray-Jones and Luke Hunter, for example. “Hopefully it’ll be competitive. We’ll have to be at our best to make it competitive. If we’re not at it we’ll get well beat because they’re a good side.
“We’ll be up for it. We’ll be looking to make it as hard as possible for them. We’ll just try and frustrate them.”
Meanwhile, former Carlisle United favourite Edmondson gave his view from the Penrith camp. “We will be taking it like we do every other game and we’ll be going as strong as we possibly can. Keswick are going well in their league,” he said. “I know their reserve team has unfortunately been stopped but that means they can pool together a good squad and finish the season strongly.
“We will attack it as strong as we can. We will attempt to go at them and make sure we’re positive and on the front foot, give some game time to people but without disrespecting Keswick because at the end of the day we don’t want to get beat.”
But talk of any silverware was very much on the back burner. “There are some good clubs still in the competition,” insisted Edmondson. “We’ve just got to take this game and make sure we get over Keswick because Keswick can be a banana skin. Let’s get over this one, see where the draw takes us and go from there.”
In another quarter-final tie, Westmorland League side Greystoke top flight team host Whitehaven AFC, who are mid-table in West Lancashire League Premier Division.
“They’re a couple of steps ahead of us in the so-called football pyramid,” said Greystoke manager Dave Simmons. “I don’t think they’ve been in great form although it’s a step up for our boys but we have home advantage.
“We’ve only had one game in the past two months although we won that. We’ve been looking lively in training but match day is a different ball game. Hopefully we’ll give a good account of ourselves.”
A healthy crowd is expected to watch the game. And Simmons, whose team are nicknamed the “Farmers”, explained: “Whitehaven are bringing a coach with 50 people so there will be a few people down. We’ll have to round up a few sheep to get comparable numbers!”
1995 cup clash was settled after replay and two periods of extra-time
Keswick and Penrith AFC last met competitively 28 years ago in a Cumberland Cup quarter-final tie which was settled only after a replay and two lots of extra-time.
Reigning Westmorland League champions Keswick took a 12th minute lead in that initial tie through Paul Robinson before Stephen Ridley drew the Blues level just before the half-hour mark.
Penrith manager Stuart Rome later admitted Keswick had been the better side over 120 minutes of football, on 7th January, 1995, and he was grateful for keeper Nicky Whitfield’s brilliant late save.
According to a report in the Cumberland & Westmorland Herald, Keswick assistant boss and sweeper Malcolm Rigg and centre back Martin Kirkby — who signed for the Blues later that month — had fine games, as did Paul Renwick, Whitfield and Mark Gardner for the visitors.
A Southend Road replay between the sides also went the distance and was settled by the North West Counties League hosts with a goal three minutes from the end of extra-time as the ball was forced home under pressure from Renwick.
Robinson had earlier cancelled out Ridley’s 49th minute opener.
“I was very relieved but not pleased with our performance,” reflected Rome, who called Keswick “a credit to the Westmorland League”.
Rigg, meanwhile, had said: “We were sick. It was a good team performance, exactly the same as last week, and we were very fed up to lose the way we did. We were the better side and in extra-time Penrith hardly had a shot.”
Penrith went to defeat Wigton Harriers in a last four tie with goals from Tony Fyfe, Renwick and Lee Armstrong, but lost 2-0 to Gretna of the Unibond League in the Brunton Park final five days later, on 27th April.
