With 3 defeats & 2 draws from the last 5 games the Boro had the opportunity to get back on track with 3 home games in a week, all 3 away teams wore the same colour strip, dark blue shirts & white shorts, starting with Ipswich this afternoon, Leicester City on Tuesday, the previous fixture postponed after 28 minutes due to floodlight failure & then rounding off the 3 home games, Birmingham City the following Saturday.

A brace form Graeme Souness & an Alan Foggon strike, in front of 23,735, ensured Boro ran out comfortable 3-0 winners & setting us up nicely for the Leicester fixture Tuesday night,
fingers crossed the lights are working & we've paid the bills

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

John Hendrie scored Boro's 1st ever PL hat trick

Boro beat Blackburn Rovers 3-2 at Ayresome Park, with Stuart Ripley one of the 1986 Boro legends, returning to the Boro for the 1st time since his big money transfer during the close season
A nervous Stuart Ripley was left disappointed as the mighty Boro beat Rovers who fell to their 1st away defeat of the season

It was John Hendries 1st of 3 Boro career hat tricks, our 89th hat trick at AP & 127 in total since becoming a league club in 1899

Lennies team

Stephen Pears
Curtis Fleming
Jimmy Phillips
Nicky Mohan - 1st game of the season
Derek Whyte
Robbie Mustoe
John Hendrie
Andy Peake
Paul Wilkinson
Craig Hignett - Home debut
Tommy Wright
Sub
No12 Jamie Pollock
No14 Graham Kavanagh

17/1/1981 - Dave Hodgson was the penultimate football league player to receive a 'red card' before red cards were binned & then reintroduced 6 years later (1987/88 season)

After putting Boro one nil up after 5 minutes Hodgy received his marching orders in the 22nd minute in a 3-2 defeat, all this while wearing a Man Utd home shirt due to television banning sponsors names on shirts

Man Citys Nicky Reid was later sent off in the 88th minute to become the last red carded footballer at the time

Man Citys Nicky Reid was later sent off in the 88th minute

53 years ago today

Boro 0 Birmingham City 0

Going into this third division fixture at Ayresome Park the Boro were unbeaten in 5 games, zero goals conceded in the previous 4 games, which included 2 consecutive away wins on the bounce, the Boro must have been full of confidence going in to this match but a bit surprised with a drop in the attendance of 716 fans from 10,092 to 9,376, for this home fixture & our 1st ever meeting against Chester City
On the game itself, Bernie put the Boro 1-0 up for his 6th goal of the season but Chester didn't lay down & fought to, not only equalise, but go in front when scoring twice, it remained this way with Chester victorious, recording the 1st league meeting between the 2 sides with a victory over the mighty Boro.

This was our 2nd home defeat & 3rd defeat in total so far this campaign, which, considering the players have had no pre-season matches & only training in local parks, it showed the strength of the players to keep fit & sharp during the coming season & quite remarkable & the testing ability of Bruce Rioch & his 14 players to get to the end of November only 3 defeats, top of the league & still in the FAC

Stephen Pears
Brian Laws
Colin Cooper
Tony Mowbray
Gary Parkinson
Gary Pallister
Bernie Slaven
Archie Stephens
Alan Kernaghan
Gary Gill - Gary Hamilton
Stuart Ripley

We went the opening 9 games without losing a league game & the final 13. While not even on the Pools coupons till October.

What an incredible, unbelievable, never to be forgotten season

I was with my old man for that one in the North Stand.
His car got keyed after a drubbing back then, not certain but this could have been the game.
A miserable day!

Boro 1 Swansea City 0

Stephen Pears was in the 4th game of his first 6 game loan spell & having only conceded the one goal in his previous three had another blank this afternoon
Boro were in 13th place with Swansea rock bottom of the second division & no away wins to their name either, typical Boro on the cards!

No not this time, Heine Ott scored the only goal of the game recording his 4th goal of the season, keeping all three points on Teesside
 
Big Mal's team.

Stephen Pears.
Darren Wood
Gary Hamilton
Paul Ward
Mick Baxter
Irving Nattrass
Stephenn Bell
Mick Kennedy
Heine Otto
Paul Sugrue
Andy Crawford

Attendance  - 6,804

Following the dismissal of Big Mal in March 1983 with big Jack coming in Boro finished the season in 17th place, 7 points & 3 places above third bottom Derby County

Boro flashback 

I don't usually post a thumping as this, but with it being to the exact day 42 years ago it just got me thinking of what has happened to our great club since them days & now
Not a good day at the office for Boro on this when tonight visitors Blackburn Rovers, who back then after 15 games were in 16th place, one place above the Boro, on GD.
Blackburn doubled their away wins for the season with a certain Noel Brotherston (RIP) remember him he tortured us during that afternoon & the following season, IIRC
Noel Brotherson became a painter & decorator when he retired from football, who sadly passed away at the age of 38

I was in the south terrace, chicken run, with my dad & whoever was there that day will have witnessed Noel Brotherson, RIP, absolutely torture us from kick off, we were on the end of a few thumping that season

IIRC we were 4-0 down within 20 minutes, which remained at HT. Terry Cochrane scoring our consolation goal, in the second half with his first of the season & with that goal we drew the second half 1-1

Yellow rose before the game, a few beers then a 5 minute walk to Ayresome Park. One of those occasions you were thankful of having a drink

Big Mals team
Jim Platt
Paul Ward
Joe Bolton
Mick Baxter
Colin Ross - Terry Cochrane
Darren Wood
Mick Kennedy
Ray Hankin
Heine Otto
Stephen Bell
David Shearer

Attendance: 10,821

Big Mal slowly steered us away from relegation finishing the season in 16th, with three points & 4 places above the relegated bottom third bottom team & at what time, looked as a second consecutive relegation season, we owe Malcolm Allison a lot with so few players to choose from

Despite the grim times back then between 1981 to May 1986 I still look back with fondness on those days supporting & following the Boro to away games.

UTMB

I have memories of that night. I can remember being crazy excited we were playing for a cup.
Stood on my wooden stool in the Clive Road end.

Boro 1 Fulham 0

Hands up those who were excited about playing in a cup final, when given our history, apart from the North Riding Senior Cup finals us Boro fans were pretty thin on the ground when cup finals come along, so this was the biggy

We weren't really to bothered how many we scored to take to the second leg in December, as long as we took a lead & a slender lead we took, courtesy of Les Strong connecting to a David Armstrong diving header at the holgate end from a Terry Cooper cross to take to Craven cottage in 2 weeks time.
1-0 to the mighty reds - One hand on the trophy

Jim Platt
John Craggs
Frank Spraggon
Bobby Murdoch - Alan Foggon
Stuey Boam
Willie Maddren
Peter Brine
David Mills
John Hickton
Terry Cooper
David Armstrong


Attendance  - 14,700