This day 1977 - Sad Boro day

[erimus74]

The best Boro player, IMHO, that I seen play for our football club
Graeme Souness played his final game for the mighty Boro in a 2-2 home draw v Norwich City

A couple of seasons previous, Souness scored the only goal v Norwich to temporarily take us to the top of the league, this time v Norwich he was saying goodbye

Graeme Souness, registered No496, had signed for the Boro on the 30th December 1972, now leaving on the 31st 1977
Over 200 appearances for the Boro, scoring 23 goals, including one hat trick

Another massive, massive legend, John Hickton, also started his final game for the Boro after 11 seasons, ironically, his 1st Boro game he wore No5 & his last starting shirt he wore No5, big John was to make 4 more appearances wearing the No12 shirt before leaving his beloved Boro

Goalie Pat Cuff, who made his Boro debut on the 9th April 1974, in a 0-0 home draw v Bolton, was also playing his final game for the Boro as manager John Neal was checking out who he wants as No2 to Jim Platt going forward

This game also seen Stan Cummins score his 1st home goal, doubling his Boro account with David Armstrong scoring the 2nd goal

The game was watched by the lowest crowd of the season 15,646, which was 12,000 down on the previous home game 4 days earlier v Man City

What a poor year player wise, the late, great Willie Maddren, for me, our best ever defender, had played his last ever 1st team game in September, although he was still under contract & fighting to overcome his injury he never did, while another of Charltons Champions had to retire due to injury, Peter Brine

John Neal's team that finished the year

Pat Cuff
John Craggs
Ian Bailey
Graeme Souness
John Hickton
Alan Ramage
David Mills
Billy Ashcroft
Tony McAndrew
David Armstrong

Sub - Billy Woof