29th November 1986 - Boro 1 Chester 2

[erimus74]

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