This day 1974 - Back in the top flight after a 20 year absence

[erimus74]

Birmingham 0 Boro 3

Thousands of Boro fans, young & not so young, have waited a long, long time for this moment, to wake up on a saturday morning & see their team name as a 1st divison club, alongside 1st divison teams

Boro played their 1st top flight game since losing 3-1 away to Arsenal on the 24th April 1954, Linda Delapenha scoring our last top flight goal

Our last visit to St Andrews, which over the years has jot been a good hunting ground for the Boro, as a 1st division club was on the 15th April 1950 the game ended goaless

With no new signings during the summer big Jack is keeping faith in the team that stormed the 2nd division the previous season, stormed, well we battered that league, we were far too good, head & shoulders above the rest

Boro started their 1st game back in the top flight away to Birmingham City, a ground we don't normally do well at & managed by Freddie Goodwin (wasnt there a comedian with the same name) who finished 19th previous seson (73-74)

Boro were head & shoulders above the opposition, winning this game 3-0 at a canter & who better to open our account back in the top flight than Mr Middlesbrough himself, John Hickton, putting the mighty Boro one up, Alan Foggon, Boro's top goalscorer from our championship winning season was hoping he's going to carry on that stat, when scoring a brace to cap a fantatsic return to the 1st division & set the tone for the season ahead, we carried on from our magnificent 73-74 season

Boro team

Jim Platt
John Craggs
Frank Spraggon
Willie Maddren
Stuart Boam
Brian Taylor
Bobby Murdoch
David Mills
John Hickton
Alan Foggon
David Armstrong

Great times following the Boro back then

[AtomicDog]

Use to have that bottom poster on My bedroom wall, when I lived in the town
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[John Trebor]

What a team!
For a few seasons we weren't just making up the numbers, or fighting above our weight - we were on equal terms with the big boys. We were so close to winning something, maybe even the double!
It still makes me a little bit sad.

[erimus74]

What a team!
For a few seasons we weren't just making up the numbers, or fighting above our weight - we were on equal terms with the big boys. We were so close to winning something, maybe even the double!
It still makes me a little bit sad.

Couldnt agree more & IMHO, our best team & manager ever

[markmywords]

That team picked itself. Every supporter around my age could reel it off. Couldn't do it now because of changes all the time.
Players played with injuries or pumped full of cortisone injections. That team was so close to winning the title. Great times.