Lancaster nostalgia: a points problem for club
Far from being dispirited Catholic Young Boys then played Carnforth Juniors and in a highly entertaining game won 5-0. Young Boys took the lead after five minutes, when Brian Mayor scored with a sizzling left foot drive from outside the box.
Carnforth tried hard to equalise but Hargreaves and Dennis Furey proved a cast-iron defence. Just before half-time a shot from Brian Mayor hit the post and rebounded to Bob Carter who promptly made it 2-0.
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Hide AdIn the second half Frank Wilkinson, playing his first game for the Young Boys, put them three up after beating three defenders. Within minutes a corner kick by Brian Mayor found Bob Carter’s head and the score became 4-0. Two minutes later a centre by Redmond found Bob Carter in position to head home number five.
Players included for Carnforth: Pete Silver, Hogg, Andy Bain, Hodgson, Morris, Mills, Gorst, Rogerson, Barton, Crossley, McCartney. Catholic Young Boys included: John Boardman, Hargreaves, Dennis Furey, John Docherty (captain), Alec Escolme, Ken Winder, Bob Carter, Redmond, Frank Wilkinson, John Norris and Brian Mayor.
In those far-off days following a football match we would meet up with friends at Brubeck’s, a trendy coffee bar located on the corner of Victoria Street and Northumberland Street in Morecambe. Buying a coffee and sitting there all night listening to Buddy Holly on the jukebox was enjoyable, but the great attraction was chatting up the girls, yes actually speaking to someone across the table rather than “meeting” them online, how boring that sounds? At the end of the night we would then catch the train from Promenade Station back to Caton, which was possible then.
In January 1959 the Lancaster Guardian published a Junior League table that showed the Young Boys had been deducted two points for playing an ineligible player and in the Guardian of May 15, when Red Rose Boys Club and the Catholic Young Boys played out a 1-1 draw in the final league game of the year on Barton Road, Lancaster, the league table still showed this deduction.
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Hide AdOn May 22 1959 the Guardian reported as follows, “Red Rose Boys’ Club topped the North Lancashire & District Junior League with 34 points from 18 games in an unbeaten season during which they scored 88 goals and only conceded 10.
“Runners-up were Morecambe Football Club Juniors.” The mystery of the two points deduction was never solved because when the final league table was published it showed that Catholic Young Boys, and not Morecambe Juniors were runners-up to the Red Rose Boys Club.
In season 1959-60, John Boardman and Frank Wilkinson would both go on to play for Morecambe Juniors and finish as runners-up to Red Rose Boys Club once again in the Junior League.
A highlight of that season, though, would have been their appearance at Old Trafford against Manchester United in the FA Youth Cup where John, the goalkeeper, received a standing ovation from a crowd of 11,000. In season 1957-58, Catholic Young Boys finished in sixth place in a Junior League that was won by Skerton Old Boys by one point from Red Rose Boys Club. The team was photographed before a 1-6 defeat to the Red Rose Club.