This day 1977 - 20th August 1977

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The start of a new era

John Neal, certainly in my top 3 all time favourite Boro managers, who, IMHO, had a hard enough task following in the footsteps of the, best ever Boro manager & what a man to follow, but he tore up big Jacks style of football & changed the whole structure of the playing side, going on to become an very good manager for us, he built a young, exciting team, a team that should have won silverware

John Neal couldn't have picked a harder debut for his 1st game as Boro manager than Liverpool who were league champions & european cup holders & had a certain Scottish international, Kenny Dalglish making his Livepool debut too
 
Like Big Jack had done in his debut season in the dugout, John Neal did likewise, the mighty Boro kicking off his 1st season as manager wearing an iconic strip, a quality Adidas round neck awesome shirt & infront of a full house too

Like Liverpool Boro included a record signing making his Boro debut, John Mahoney, costing £90k, registered No512, mind well short of Liverpool's shelling out £400k & a British record transfer, for Kenny Dalglish

Long before sky ruined our beautiful game, players wore No's 1-11, the sub wore No12, no names on the backs of the shirts, no dancing when scoring a goal, just a raise of the arm in recognition, the dug out had the manager, sub, sponge man trainer, doctor, not like today everyman & his dog sat in the dugout
 
From mine & my brothers spot in the packed Holgate, watching this exciting new era kickoff, Kenny Dalglish opened the scoring, putting Liverpool one up with David Armstrong equalising for the Boro & that's how it remained

John Neals 1st picked team he picked

Jim Platt - Best Boro keeper
John Craggs - Awesome right back & should have played for England
Terry Cooper - still good enough to have played for England while at the Boro
Graeme Souness - For me, the best ever Boro player
Stuey Boam - Best Boro captain
Willie Maddren - Best Boro defender without a doubt
John Mahoney - Record signing
David Mills - Loved Millsy, ran forever
Billy Woof - 9th 1st team appearance, 4th start 
Tony McAndrew - Youngest Boro player to score a 1st team hat trick & probably our best Mr versatile player
Davey Armstrong - Incredible & unbelievable consecutive appearances

SUB - Mr Middlesbrough John Hickton - My favourite ever Boro player - Replaced Billy Woof

Attendance - 30,805






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