28th January 1978 - Craig Johnston

[erimus74]

After watching big Jacks Boro on an Australian tour from his hospital bed, Craig decided there & then that football in the UK was the career for him & after recovering from his stay in hospital, told his parents of his plans to travel to the UK to become a professional footballer

Craig scrimped & saved & a big help from his parents, who raised the money he needed to travel to the UK when they remortgaged their home to pay for Craig hoping to make it as a professional footballer, when he arrived he couldn't have felt more unwelcome, one day he's laying on a sun soaked beach in Australia the next rain soaked Middlesbrough & after some unsavoury comments from big Jack Craig he was determined to prove his doubters wrong & that he had what it takes to go to the very top, he lied to his mam & dad after big Jacks comments to say that they loved him. From what he went through he certainly did prove his doubters wrong & if you have the chance to listen to his podcast, his story arriving in the UK to his 1st Boro outing & a glamorous FAC tie at home to Everton is emotional listening to, it really is

After many days dodging the glare of big Jack & with help from the 1st team Craig successfully stayed in the UK & at the Boro even when the next manager was introduced
Later in John Neals debut season the Boro manager had heard & seen enough of Craig in training & reserve outings to be confident he could do a specific job & handed him the No10 shirt for his debut, when Tony McAndrew failed to shake off an injury he picked up

Having hid from big Jack during his day's as Boro manager to the arrival of John Neal, he trained hard & on his own, for a big part of that time, then when he got his break in the reserves he was focused on showing JN what his game was about, on this day all his hard work had paid dividends

The Everton cup tie was our reward after knocking out Coventry 3-0 in the 3rd round
Boro won this game 3-2 with goals from John Mahoney his 1st Boro goal & a brace from David Mills, his 11th goal of the season & 10th FAC goal

On the Everton cup tie, Boro went in to a 3-0 lead, Everton then brought on Duncan McKenzie who came in & reduced the arrears but we were full value for our win & went in to the hat for the 5th round

This victory brought sweet revenge as Everton knocked out the mighty Boro 2-1 at Ayresome Park, with the help of one of the best opposition goalkeeping performances I ever witnessed at Ayresome Park, George Woods, who was heroic when Everton knocked us out of the league cup earlier in the season, not so in the FAC tie

John Neals team
Jim Platt
John Craggs
Ian Bailey
John Mahoney
Stuey Boam
Alan Ramage
David Mills
Stan Cummins
Billy Ashcroft
Craig Johnston
David Armstrong.

Another season of "if only"

[Johnny Thunder]

It's a class story Erimus. Great post too.



 

[erimus74]

16 goals in 77 appearances Johnny

[Francks left peg]

Great post Erimus. Was it Johnson that designed the original Adidas predator?

[TerryCochranesSocks]

Oh man Erimus, this is quality stuff.
Bringing back such good memories of me and my old man going to these games.

Thanks fella.