29/10/1988 - Boro 4 Millwall 2

[erimus74]

Plus a record signing introduced to the crowd

I remember this day, for all the right, excitable reason's, as if it were yesterday

Me & my wife had just arrived home from shopping with my pre-match fish & chips before setting off

As we sat having our dinner, listening to the match buildup on the radio when all of a sudden it was announced that Peter Davenport had (unfortunately) chosen to sign for the Boro over Villa, wow, what a cracking signing, 2 years after almost going to the wall we had signed an England International from Man Utd & ex Forest player, a record signing, which was going to improve our young, exciting team even more, or so we thought

As soon as I heard the news my F&C were history, I was so excited I just wanted to go the match then, though it was only half 12 & I only lived 10 minutes walk from Ayresome Park
Once I came down from off the ceiling I finally ate my F&C, gave my wife a kiss on the cheek & round to the yellow rose for a pre match beer, or two, with my dad & mates, then off to the holy grail, to see the mighty Boro.

Walking to the ground you could feel the excitement in the air, going through Ayresome Park turnstiles the ground was buzzing, there's only going to be one winner that afternoon

The match kicked off, the crowd were really up for it, the game swung one way, then another, from 1-0 up to 2-1 down to winning 4-2, this game was as good as the score suggests

Exciting from start to finish, fantastic Boro.

Gary Hamilton v Trevor Hurlock, what a contest, Gary Hamilton came out on top though

Goals Bernie Bernie Joseph Slaven, Stuart Ripley, Mark Burke & a Gary Parkinson penalty

What a fantastic game, one of my highlights at Ayresome Park, I dearly miss that place

A fantastic era following the Boro, so proud & fortunate to have been a Boro fan back then

Boro team: Stephen Pears, Gary Parkinson, Colin Cooper, Tony Mowbray, Gary Hamilton, Gary Pallister, Bernie Slaven, Mark Brennan, Mark Burke, Paul Kerr, Stuart Ripley, sub, Alan Kernaghan

That was Millwalls 1st defeat of the season

Millwalls keeper, Brian Horne signed for us on loan for 4 games a few seasons later & became our first sub keeper to come on

Attendance: 19,788

Boro ended the season 3rd bottom & relegated, we really didn't deserve to go down that season,  played some beautiful football, maybe the squad was to young & inexperienced, maybe if we'd bought a few experienced midfield/defenders instead of ploughing all the money on Davenport then we would have survived.

I remember going to Villa Park back end of the season with Boro leading 1-0 with seconds to go when they equalised from a free kick which in the end kept Villa up with a point more than us