This day 1977 - The laye, great Willie Maddrens final 1st team game

[erimus74]

Boro flashback - 3rd September 1977

John Neals 2nd away game, 4th game as Boro manager seen a Boro legend make his final appearence in a Boro shirt, a record signing make his Boro debut, an opposing player, with a massive future for WBA makes his debut & a future Boro manager score for the opposition

The late, great, Willie Maddren, who made 340 appearences, scoring 21 goals for the mighty Boro, played his last 1st team game for the Boro on this day
Billy Ashcroft signed from Wrexham in midweek for a club record £135k make his debut
Peter Brine made his last Boro away appearence
Cyril Regis making & scoring on his debut for WBA

Two goals in 5 minutes in the 1st half put WBA in the driving seat, on 15 minutes, future Boro manager, Bryan Robson scores from close range to put WBA one up & within 5 minutes Cyril Regis scores on his debut to double their lead

In the 47th minute, David Mills pulled a goal back to put the Boro back in the game & for a while the game went from end to end, with a few minutes to go David Mills hit the bar & our final chance  of getting something out of the game had gone & the Boro suffered their 1st defeat of the season

Laurie Cunninghams debut season for WBA, Bryan Robson was in his 2nd season & Cyril Regis making his debut, they had some team back then

John Neals team

Jim Platt
John Craggs
Terry Cooper
Peter Brine
Stuart Boam
Willie Maddren
John Mahoney
David Mills
Billy Ashcroft
Tony McAndrew
David Armstrong
Sub
Graeme Hedley

John Neal wasnt very far from building a very good team back then that could challenge the best of them, the board however.....