Farewell to Ayresome Park

[erimus74]

Wow, where has the time gone  - 29 years ago today we said farewell to our beloved Ayresome Park.

30th April 1995 - Boro 2 Luton 1

Bryan Robson in his 1st managerial position had us on the verge of promotion

The final league game at our famous 93 year old ground has arrived & with it, all the wonderful & not so wonderful, happy & sad memories, us Boro fans will have seen over the many, many seasons following our club

December 1971 our dad paid me & my younger brother in to the boysend, Birmingham or Orient, he wasn't to sure who the opposition were on our 1st ever Boro home game, how ironic those two teams mentioned are still haunted in Boro folklore,  our dad would stand in front of us in the bob end, separated by a small wall & that was it, we were hooked

18th January 1972, when I was 11, me & our Kev went to our 1st ever cup match when 1st division giants Man City were the visitors for an FAC 3rd round replay, showing a snow covered Ayresome Park, snow piled up against the advertising boards. Boro winning the cup tie 1-0, courtesy of Boro legend, Mr Middlesbrough John Hickton, scoring the only goal, Man City wearing their iconic, classy white away strip

I can't ever remember missing more than a couple of home games in a row from late 71 until we left AP, attending all the very low & very low, low attendances we had, the Boro at home was a must in our household

Charlton's Champions was my favourite era, 50 years later & that team is still remembered as a great team, with great players

John Neal's teams were awesome too, with exciting times & very good young, exciting players, who along with big Jacks teams should have brought silverware, or played at Wembley

Bobby Murdoch's era brought us down to earth mind with a bump & reality,  it wasn't set in stone we would have great players, in very good Boro teams

I enjoyed Malcolm Allison's reign as manager, you felt part of something with the dwindling crowds & back's to the wall at times of struggle, he proved what a good manager he was, how we survived with the lack of players he had at his disposal, but a good manager

The late, great Willie Maddren's term as manager, well he was just so unlucky, I would often say, the right man at the wrong time, until someone rightly pointed out, no, the right man at the right time, he managed the club at our lowest ebb, made some excellent signings, tried unsuccessfully to make one or two other exceptional signings, but it just wouldn't work for him, among his many excellent signings, his major signing was bringing Bruce Rioch to our football club, as 1st team coach

Willie knew it just wasn't going to be at the Boro & after a succession of defeats was relieved of his duties, he had brought a group of players to the club who would go on to become household names, Boro legends in their own right

Bruce was given temporary charge of the Boro, with one request, try & keep the Boro in the 2nd division, Bruce tried but was unsuccessful & on the final day of the season defeat away to Shrewsbury, we were relegated to the 3rd division

Following relegation, worse was to follow that month when on the 21st May 1986, the Boro went in to voluntary liquidation, what followed that summer was to become one of the most incredible seasons that many of us Boro fans were fortunate to witness & most likely never see again, Boro & Bruce, the last person Willie Maddren brought to the Boro & most certainly Willie Maddren's finest purchase, were made for each other & 3 fantastic season's followed

March 1990, Bruce's No2 Colin Todd stayed at the club when sadly Bruce was dismissed & IMHO, at the worst possible time, with the club on the verge of playing their 1st ever cup final at Wembley & Bruce should have led us out, but after Bruce there was only one other person worthy of such an honour at the club then, Tony Mowbray, who proudly led his team on to the Wembley turf & to a result we have got use to at Wembley since that day

The following season Toddy took us to the playoffs, losing out to a future Boro manager, Neil Warnocks Notts County playoff winners

The following summer Toddy was relieved of his duties & a rarity from the Boro, bringing in a manager who was in employment at the the time when Lennie Lawrence accepted the job, leaving Charlton for the Boro, his task take us to the 1st ever PL

What a debut season for Lennie, taking us to a league cup semi final v man Utd & promotion to the PL, sadly it went downhill from that moment, at the beginning a few excellent results in the PL then with the season ending in relegation, the following season Boro were in a midtable struggle & a midweek home fixture to Charlton Athletic Ste Gibson took his seat at a sparse Ayresome Park, as he took his seat he looked at the empty terraces, the rusty old ground & the got to think a new chapter is needed at the club, something to lift the people of Teesside & plans were put in place to build a new all singing, dancing brand new stadium & with it Bryan Robson was enticed to Teesside, after an exciting final season at AP the final home league game v Luton

I can still see the celebrations before the Luton game, a number of ex-players paraded around all sides of the cinder path, Mannion, Maddren, Hickton, Boam, Platt, Hardwick, Mogga, Craggs, Hodgson to name but a few

I was lucky enough to be at the front of the holgate taking plenty of photos & getting my season ticket book signed by some of the ex-players

A fantastic sight to see when all 4 stands, with scarves waving, sang in unison 'walk on', followed by the naming of the new stadium being unveiled

The party atmosphere, such emotion, could make the players complacent, a very important game was to be played, the Luton game was massive, with one team going up automatically this was a game we HAD to win, not only avoiding the dreaded playoffs but, to push us ahead of our closest promotion rivals for that one spot, plus, we lost our very 1st home league game at Ayresome Park on the 3rd of September 1903, we certainly didn't want to lose the last one

The match kicked off with the Boro players understandably feeling nervous, the atmosphere was quite muted, IIRC, then gerrriinn there, the ref awarded the Boro a penalty, the final spot kick awarded at Ayresome Park, Neil Cox took the responsibility of taking the penalty, can NC score our final 210th & final penalty at AP, the crowd held their breath, noooooooo, the Luton keeper saved the spot kick, this certainly didn't help the nervous Boro fans one bit, but super cool John Hendrie was to be our saviour, scoring 2 goals, either side of a Luton equaliser, in the 45th minute bang on half time & again in the 72nd minute, putting us Boro fans in dreamland. In the final stages chances were created which went begging, again not helping easing our nerves, eventually the ref blew the full time whistle for the final time for a league game at Ayresome Park, the sun was shining & the Boro had won, a victory parade followed, fans spilled on to the pitch to celebrate with the players, the party atmosphere continued, at this point we weren't sure of automatic promotion, this came a few days later when Bolton drew at Stoke & Boro were up

In my time following the mighty Boro, we should have won the 1st division, we should have won the FAC & could & should have won the League cup, went in to liquidation, locked out of our ground, numerous promotions & relegations, one of the best ever in Graeme Souness, though we did win one piece of silverware, when we won the ASC in 1975, beating Fulham 1-0 over 2 legs

Some 26 managers & approx. 650 players have played for the mighty Boro & graced Ayresome Park

To name a few

As well as Charltons aces & Bruces 1986 heroes

John Neals young, exciting team

George Camsell
Tim Williamson
Micky Fenton
George Hardwick
Wilf Mannion
Brian Clough
Alan Peacock
George Elliott
Carr brothers
Andrew Nesbit Wilson
Harold Shepherdson
Willie Whigham
Gordon Jones
Heine Otto

Stan Anderson - My 1st Boro manager

etc, etc, the list is endless



Boro team in this historic day

Alan Miller - RIP
Neil Cox
Derek Whyte
Steve Vickers
Nigel Pearson
Clayton Blackmore
Bryan Robson
Jamie Pollock
Jan Aage Fjortoft
John Hendrie
Alan Moore

Subs
Uwe Fuchs
Jamie Mareno

Stephen Pears, our 1st ever loanee

Attendance, 23,903



9th march 1905 - FAC 3rd round replay Boro 1 Man City 3 - Our first FAC match at Ayresome Park

7th October 1905 - George Reid become the 1st Boro to score a hat trick when he scored a treble in a 5-1 win over Bury - First division

20th March 1915 - Andy Wilson became the firsy Boro player sent off at Ayresome Park v Liverpool

3rd October 1960 - Boro 3 Cardiff 4 - Our first league cup match at Ayresome Park

18th September 1965 - Bryan Taffy Orritt our first home sub v Charlton Athletic

22nd December 1993 - v Brescia a crowd of 1,633 our lowest crowd for a competitive game

4th March 1995 Uwe Fuchs scored a final Ayresome Park hat trick

17th April 1995 - Uwe Fuchs became the last player sent off at Ayresome Park with Sheff Utd our opponents



I told my kids, once the Boro break your heart they have you for life

Ayresome Park thanks for the memories x

[Johnny Thunder]

Class post Erimus. That brings back a few memories.




 

[TommyDickfingers]

I nicked out of work to queue up for a ticket.

Great day tinged with both happiness and sadness. Ayresome Park gave some great memories but I do believe that we needed to move to a better ground.

[TerryCochranesSocks]

Have this on my office wall



I'm somewhere left of centre near the Holgate roof support.