This day 1944 - Happy birthday to a member of Charlton Champions

[erimus74]

Bobby Murdoch

Robert White Murdoch player & future Boro manager, was born this day
Bobby was a very much decorated Scottish footballer, capped 12 times at international level, he spent 14 seasons at Parkhead, winning 7 consecutive league titles, Scottish FAC & LC's, a member of the Lisbon lions when in 1967 Celtic became the 1st British team to win the European cup, two years later, he was voted Scotland player of the year
Not long after big Jack took over at the Boro he attended a sportsman dinner & seated next to Jock Stein who listening to Jack Charltons plans he had at the Boro & a weakness in a certain area when Jock Stein told him he had the perfect player at Celtic, who was just kicking his heels in the reserves & if he's interested then he will set the ball rolling, within a couple of weeks of this sportsman's dinner Bobby, at 29 years of age, had signed for the Boro.

15th September 1973 - Bobby played his Boro game at Halifax in a north midland league reserve game
22nd September - Bobby made his official league debut in a 2nd division game a godless draw away to Blackpool, registered No495

Back then, Scottish folk would embark enmass on Blackpool for a mini holiday, when word got out that one of their idols was making his Boro debut that night a large contingent of Scottish fans boosted the game attendance
He had a reputation as an attacking inside forward, but not now as mobile as he was in his early days with Celtic, he was still just as affective as he could just stand in & around the centre circle & just spray the ball all around the pitch to a colleague to just run on to, his passing was that good.
29th September - Bobbys home debut against top of the league Bristol City, he scored his 1st Boro goal in a 2-0 win, a result that seen the mighty Boro go level with City at the top of the 2nd divison, a position we occupied for the remainder of the season

17th September 1976, Bobby played his final Boro 1st team game when a fellow Scot, Tony McAndrew, became the youngest Boro player to score a 1st team hat trick in a 3-0 home win over Sheff Utd
1976 with his playing career now over Bobby joined the coaching staff at Ayresome Park as youth team coach, Jack left & was replaced by John Neal
1981 - Sadly, John Neal resigned as manager in the summer 1981 Bobby applied for the position & in June 1981 was offered the managers job, becoming our 19th Boro manager, his debut season in the dugout couldn't have been made any harder when a talented trio of, Mark Proctor, Craig Johnston & David Armstrong, the very reason John Neal resigned from the club
Bobby basically struggled from day one & after 8 seasons in the top flight we were relegated in his 1st season, our poor form then carried over the following into the 2nd division,  we went from bad to worse
28th September 1982 - Almost 9 years to the day since his debut goal v Bristol City, we lost 4-1 at home to Grimsby Town, the writing was on the wall & soon after Bobby was dismissed
There were some bright moments in his time as managers he handed debuts to two Boro icons, Stephen Bell & Tony Mowbray, while signing talisman Dutchman Heine Otto & no nonsense, aggressive midfield terrier Mick Kennedy & handing a debut to Dave Currie

As manager he was in charge for 54 games, winning 9
He played 115 games for Boro between 1973-76, scoring 7 goals