64 years today - Not my birthday but the year I was born

Arthur Kaye scored his first ever Boro goal in a 1-1 draw

October this year the league cup was formed, our opponents Cardiff City knocked us out in the first round 4-3 at Ayresome Park, Gordon Jones made his Boro debut

Also debuts in 1960 were Arthur Kaye & Joe Livingstone
We were also knocked out in the 3rd round of the FAC losing at Man United 1-0
Bob Dennisons Boro finished in 5th place 10 points behind runners up Sheffield United

UTMB 🥰

Quote from: Johnny Thunder on December 17, 2024, 10:48:10 AMI was behind the goal that day. Nicked over the wall and into the seats for the second half.




Some game that was.

Nice memory Johnny

I was behind the goal that day. Nicked over the wall and into the seats for the second half.




Some game that was.

17th December 1982 - 1st meeting between both clubs & a debut Boro player
The mighty Boro travelled to the Abbey Stadium for a Friday night second division fixture, our 1st ever encounter with Cambridge United

Boro manager big Mal made just the one change from the team that beat Chelsea 3-1 at Ayresome Park the previous Saturday & wearing the No8 shirt our latest signing, Paul Sugrue, registered No551 replacing David Shearer

Big Mals team are hoping to carry on where they left off against Chelsea & fingers crossed, record our 2nd away of the season
Unfortunately it wasn't to be & normal service was resumed as we suffered our 3rd defeat in 4 games, losing 2-0

We have faced Cambridge 8 times in our history, drawing 4 & losing 4

Jim Platt
Paul Ward
Joe Bolton - Terry Cochrane
Irving Nattrass
Mick Baxter
HeineOtto
Darren Wood
Paul Sugrue
Mick Kennedy
Ray Hankin
Stephen Bell

When Big Mal arrived at Ayresome Park Harold Shepherdson was in caretaker role following the dismissal of Bobby Murdoch with the Boro struggling at the foot of the second division & looked to be heading for our second successive relegation following our relegation from the top flight only 5 months earlier.
Big Mal saved the Boro when he steered us away from the bottom 3 & to safety with 3 points to spare & even better, 3 teams between us & 3rd bottom, remarkable achievement considering the small pool of players he had at his disposal

Heine Otto & Dave Shearer were our top scorers on 9 goals each with Stephen Bell just behind on 8
Heine Otto & Darren Wood played everyone of our 47 league & cup games with Stephen Bell only missing the second leg of the league cup home cup tie

We lost at the first round of the league cup, losing to fellow second division  Burnley

5/10/1982 - League Cup 1st leg - A Burnley 2-3
26/10/1982 -League Cup 1st leg - H Burnley 1-1

We enjoyed a good run in the FAC

8/1/1983 -  FAC3rd round Bishop Stortford H 2-2
11/1/1983 - FAC3rd round replay Bishop Stortford A 2-1
29/1/1983 - FAC4th round Notts County H 2-0
19/2/1983 - FAC 5th round Arsenal H 1-1
28/2/1983 - FAC 5th round Arsenal A 2-3

Blast from the past

The mighty Boro thrashed Chelsea 7 goals to 2 as Ayresome Park.

Boro win this 1st division fixture by one of our biggest scorelines & in front of our 2nd lowest home attendance of the season 15,100

Micky Burns who became the 14th different Boro player to score 4 goals in a 1st team game, became the last Boro player to score 4 goals in a league game & the penultimate Boro player to score 4 goals in a single Boro match while playing at Ayresome Park, it was also the 28th time, out of 30, this has been achieved

Further goals from Mark Proctor, David Armstrong & a beauty from Terry Cochrane
Danny Blanchflower couldn't have picked a worse fixture for his debut game as manager & the return of Chelsea legend Peter Osgood

Chelsea actually took the lead then ended up getting thrashed
Micky Burns was a top drawer signing by John Neal who continued to put together a very good attacking team with the following line up

Jim Stewart
John Craggs
Tony McAndrew
John Mahoney
Stuey Boam
Alan Ramage
Terry Cochrane
Mark Proctor
Micky Burns
Stan Cummins
David Armstrong
Sub
Billy Ashcroft

We finished in 12th place that season 15 points away from releagtion yet 9 points away from a European place

A nice early xmas present from the Boro.

https://youtu.be/yKnwCINkn2E?si=ECeu9xt9mVZZxKYc

Big Jack kept faith with the team that beat Preston 3-0 in our midweek 3-0 home win over Preston, as Boro continued to beat every team in front of them & extend our unbeaten run to now 19 games with a 1-0 win over Forest & remain 6 points clear of second place Luton Town

Stuey Boam scored his first goal of the season with the only goal of the game as the mighty Boro continued to dominate the 2nd division on the way to being the best ever 2nd division champions

Brian Deane scored a last minute winner at the City ground for a 2-1 win 1999, it still took a few years after the City ground win before we beat Forest on Teesside, Mogga was our manager at the time when we did

Big Jacks team

Jim Platt
John Craggs
Frank Spraggon
Graeme Souness
Stuey Boam
Willie Maddren
Bobby Murdoch
David Mills
John Hickton
Alan Foggon
David Armstrong

Boro went onto finish 15 points clear of second place Luton Town, they just blew all in that division once they realised they were superior, what a start for big Jacks managerial career, great days for us Boro fans & 60p to sit in the seats, wow.

Slade No 1 at xmas on this day 1973
https://youtu.be/WM7M7zSMJcw?si=BexeDEQGrRyuFh1Y

With no win since 8th November when we won 1-0 at Norwich City big Jack kept faith with the team that drew 0-0 at home to Man Utd the previous Saturday (6th) as Boro travelled to the west midlands to face Wolves at Molineux.
Phil Boersma keeping his place following his debut against United

Boro fell behind in the 13th minute to a Terry Hibbitt penalty, within 5 minutes of going behind David Armstrong brought the Boro level with his 4th of the season then in the 35th minute David Mills put us in front with a spectacular wining goal to record his 6th of the season, bringing both points back to Teesside on the teams Bee Line coach

Boro failed to improve on their 7th place finish the previous season as ended 75/76 campaign in 13th place on 40 points.

Our FAC ended at the first hurdle as third division Bury knocked us out in the 3rd round. Following a 0-0 draw at Ayresome Park we travelled to Gigg lane, even taking a 2-0 lead, then everything went wrong as Bury fought back to win 3-2
Our league cup run gave us hope & excitement of finally reaching Wembley & getting in to Europe, then heartache, as we lost in the semi finals & as in the FAC, we face Bury at the beginning
League Cup

2nd round A Bury 2-1
3rd round H Derby 1-0
4th round H Peterborough  3-0
5th round A Burnley 2-0
SF 1st leg H Man City 1-0
SF 2nd leg A Man City 0-4 😞

Jack Charltons team.
Jim Platt
John Craggs
Tery Cooper
Phil Boersma
Stuey Boam
Willie Maddren
Bobby Murdoch
David Mills
Alan Willey
John Hickton
David Armstrong








The picture is Willie Maddren & Alan Willey, not Phil Boersma as wrong stated in the press action photo

Chelsea were our visitors to Ayresome Park for this relegation 2nd division battle

Boro's previous home game seen us get smashed 5-1 by Blackburn Rovers & our previous game away to Wolves seen us thumped 4-0 at Molenuix, 2 games, 2 big defeats, one goal scored & 9 conceded

Boro's former manager John Neals 1st return to AP since his resignation ended in a unhappy reunion as the mighty Boro won this fixture 3-1

Goals from talisman, Heine Otto his 5th of the season
Darren Wood his 3rd of the season
David Shearer slotting home the 3rd & final goal for his 8th of the season, with Boro recording our 5th win of the season

Big Mal's team.

Jim Platt
Paul Ward
Joe Bolton
Heine Otto
Mick Baxter - RIP
Irving Nattrass
Darren Wood
David Shearer - RIP
Ray Hankin
Mick Kenedy - RIP
Stephen Bell - RIP
Sub
Terry Cochrane

Attendance - 8,836

Big Mal who took over in the October with Boro at the foot of the league & following relegation the previous season looked odds on to go straight back down to the third division, eventually Malcolm Allison got the team performing 7 winning & eventually pulling away from the bottom 3 & with 3 points spare survived 

We also enjoyed a good FAC run

3rd round H Bishop Stortford 2-2
3rd round replay A Bishop Stortford 2-1
4th round H Notts County 2-0
5th round H Arsenal 1-1
5th round replay A Arsenal 2-3

League cup

2nd round 1st leg A Burnley 2-3
2nd round 2nd leg H Burnley 1-1 Losing 4-3 on aggregate

Still look back with fondness at those days

On this day 10th December 1938  - Our final full season before the outbreak of WW2

Golden boy Wilf Mannion became the 9th different Boro player to score 4 goals in one game,  13th at Ayresome Park, 15th on Teesside & the 17th in total when four goals were scored in a competitive game

Goal scoring machine Micky Fenton became the 23rd different Boro player to score a first team hat tick, the 50th at Ayresome Park, 54th on Teesside & 65th in total

Wilf Gallows team went onto finish in 4th place, our second highest top flight finish, one place & 3 points higher than the previous season

We reached the 4th round of the FA with the following
3rd round H Bolton 0-0
3rd round replay A Bolton 0-0
3rd round replay Neutral ground Bolton 1-0 AET
4th Round H Sunderland 0-2

Micky Fenton, who went on to score 9 hat tricks, one four goal game & one five goal game throughout his Boro career, finished top goalscorer with 34 goals from 33 games

Glorious night - 49 years ago

Boro were crowned Anglo Scottish cup winners in London when big Jacks boys lifted the trophy beating Fulham 1-0 in the second leg final at Craven Cottage

Route to the final

H Sunderland 3-2
H Carlisle 4-1
A Newcastle 2-2

Group winners

QF H Aberdeen 2-0 1st leg
QF A Aberdeen 5-2 2nd leg  7-2  aggregate
SF  H Mansfield 3-0 1st leg
SF  A Mansfield 2-0 2nd leg 5-0 aggregate
Final - H Fulham 1-0 1st leg
Final - A Fulham 0-0 2nd leg 1-0 aggregate - Cup winners

Big Jacks historic team.

Jim Platt
John Craggs
Terry Cooper
Phil Boersma
Stuey Boam
Willie Maddren
Bobby Murdoch
David Mills
Alan Willey
John Hickton
David Armstrong

Still look back with fondness as much at any cup final we got to