16th December 1978

[erimus74]

Blast from the past, the day the mighty Boro thrashed Chelsea 7 goals to two as Ayresome Park

Boro won this 1st division fixture by one of our biggest scorelines, infront of our 2nd lowest home attendance of the season, 15k

Micky Burns, an absolute bargain of a signing by John Neal, he became the 14th different Boro player to score 4 goals in a 1st team game, the last Boro player to score 4 goals in a league game & the penultimate Boro player to score 4 goals in a single Boro competative match while playing at Ayresome Park ( Craig Hignett become the last)
It was also the 28th time, out of 30, this has been acheived
Further goals from Mark Proctor, Davey Armstrong, a beauty from Terry Cochrane

This was Danny Blanchflowers 1st game as Chelsea's manager & the return of Chelsea legend Peter Osgood, Chelsea took the lead 1-0 but ended up getting thrashed

Micky Burns cost the Boro £72k when John Neal signed him from Cardiff City & since his scoring debut on the 7th of October away to Man Utd in a 3-2 defeat he just continued to score goals, in a team that John Neal was putting together, a very exciting, attacking team

The line up that destroyed Chelsea

Jim Stewart
John Craggs
Tony McAndrew
John Mahoney
Stuey Boam
Alan Ramage
Terry Cochrane
Mark Proctor
Micky Burns
Stan Cummins
David Armstrong

Sub
Billy Ashcroft

A nice early xmas present from the Boro & Chelsea were relegated the following season

[Johnny Thunder]

I remember that game well.

First time I managed to climb over the wall from the standing to the seats without getting caught.