Erimus74
Well-known member
30th April 1995
Boro 2 Luton 1
The final league game at our famous 93 year old ground was here, all the wonderful & not so wonderful, happy & sad memories, us Boro fans will have seen, Bryan Robson in his 1st managerial position had us on the verge of promotion
Late 1971 our dad paid me & my younger brother in to the boysend, he could never remember who the opposition was on our 1st ever Boro home game, he would stand in front of us in the bob end, separated by a small wall & that was it, we were hooked
18th January 1972 when I was 11, me & my younger brother went to our 1st ever cup match when 1st division giants Man City were the visitors for an 3rd round FAC replay, our 1st floodlit game, showing a snow covered Ayresome Park, with snow piled up against the advertising boards, Boro winning the cup tie 1-0, courtesy of Boro legend, Mr Middlesbrough John Hickton, scoring the only goal, Man City wearing their iconic, classy white away strip
I can't ever remember missing more than a couple of home games in a row from late 72 until we left AP, attending all the very low & very low, low attendances we had, the Boro at home was a must in our household
Charlton's Champions was my favourite era, 48 years & still remembered as a great team, with great players
John Neal’s teams were awesome too with exciting times & very good players, Bobby Murdoch’s era brought us down to earth mind with a bump & reality that it wasn't set in stone we would have great players, in very good Boro teams
I enjoyed Malcolm Allison’s reign as manager, you felt part of something with the dwindling crowds & back's to the wall at times of struggle
the late, great Willie Maddren’s term as manager, well he was just so unlucky, I would often say, the right man at the wrong time, until @coluka rightly pointed out, no erimus, the right man at the right time, he managed the club at our lowest ebb, made some excellent signings, tried unsuccessfully to make one or two other exceptional signings, but it just wouldn’t work for him, among his many excellent signings, his major signing was bringing Bruce Rioch to our football club, as 1st team coach
Willie knew it just wasn’t going to be at the Boro & after a succession of defeats was relieved of his duties, he had brought a group of players to the club who would go on to become household names, Boro legends in their own right
Bruce was given temporary charge of the Boro, with one request, try & keep the Boro in the 2nd division, Bruce tried but was unsuccessful & the Boro were relegated to the 3rd division away to Shrewsbury on the final day of the season
On the 21st May 1986, following relegation, the Boro went in to voluntary liquidation, what followed that summer was to become one of the most incredible seasons that many of us Boro fans were fortunate to witness & most likely never see again, Boro & Bruce, the last person Willie Maddren brought to the Boro & most certainly Willie Maddren’s finest purchase, were made for each other & 3 fantastic season's followed
I can still see the celebrations before the Luton game, a number of ex-players paraded around all sides of the cinder path, Mannion, Maddren, Hickton, Boam, Platt, Hardwick, Mogga, Craggs, Hodgson to name but a few
I was lucky enough to be at the front of the holgate taking plenty of photos & getting my season ticket book signed by some of the ex-players
A fantastic sight to see when all 4 stands, with scarves waving, sang in unison ‘walk on’, followed by the naming of the new stadium being unveiled
The party atmosphere could make the players complacent, a very important game was to be played, the Luton game was massive, with one team going up automatically this was a game we HAD to win, not only avoiding the dreaded playoffs but to push us ahead of our closest promotion rivals for that one spot, plus, we lost our very 1st home league game at Ayresome Park on the 3rd of September 1903, we certainly didn't want to lose the last one
The match kicked off with the Boro players understandably feeling nervous, the atmosphere was quite muted, IIRC, then gerrriinn there, the ref awarded the Boro a penalty, the final spot kick awarded at Ayresome Park, Neil Cox took the responsibility of taking the penalty, can NC score our final 207th & final penalty at AP, unfortunately no, the crowd held their breath, noooooooo, the Luton keeper saved the spot kick, this certainly didn’t help the nervous Boro fans one bit, but super cool John Hendrie was to be our saviour, scoring 2 goals, either side of a Luton equaliser, in the 45th minute bang on half time & again in the 72nd minute, putting us Boro fans in dreamland, in the final stages chances were created which went begging, again not helping easing our nerves, eventually the ref blew the full time whistle for the final time for a league game at Ayresome Park, the sun was shining & the Boro had won, a victory parade followed, fan spilled on to the pitch to celebrate with the players, the party atmosphere continued, at this point we weren’t sure of automatic promotion, this came a few days later when Bolton drew at Stoke & Boro were up
In my time following the mighty Boro, we should have won the 1st division, we should have won the FAC & could & should have won the League cup, went in to liquidation, locked out of our ground, numerous promotions & relegations, one of the best ever in Graeme Souness, though we did win one piece of silverware when we won the ASC in 1975, beating Fulham 1-0 over 2 legs
Some 26 managers & approx 650 players have played for the mighty Boro & graced Ayresome Park
To name a few
As well as Charltons aces
Bruces legends
George Camsell
Tim Williamson
Micky Fenton
George Hardwick
Wilf Mannion
Brian Clough
Alan Peacock
George Elliott
Carr brothers
Andrew Nesbit Wilson
Harold Shepherdson
Willie Whigham
Gordon Jones
Stand Anderson
Boro team in this historic day
Alan Miller - RIP
Neil Cox
Derek Whyte
Steve Vickers
Nigel Pearson
Clayton Blackmore
Bryan Robson
Jamie Pollock
Jan Aaga Fjortoft
John Hendrie
Alan Moore
Subs
Uwe Fuchs
Janie Mareno
Stephen Pears, our 1st ever loanee
Attendance, 23,903
I told my kids, once the Boro break your heart they have you for life
Ayresome Park thanks for the memories
UTMB - erimus
Boro 2 Luton 1
The final league game at our famous 93 year old ground was here, all the wonderful & not so wonderful, happy & sad memories, us Boro fans will have seen, Bryan Robson in his 1st managerial position had us on the verge of promotion
Late 1971 our dad paid me & my younger brother in to the boysend, he could never remember who the opposition was on our 1st ever Boro home game, he would stand in front of us in the bob end, separated by a small wall & that was it, we were hooked
18th January 1972 when I was 11, me & my younger brother went to our 1st ever cup match when 1st division giants Man City were the visitors for an 3rd round FAC replay, our 1st floodlit game, showing a snow covered Ayresome Park, with snow piled up against the advertising boards, Boro winning the cup tie 1-0, courtesy of Boro legend, Mr Middlesbrough John Hickton, scoring the only goal, Man City wearing their iconic, classy white away strip
I can't ever remember missing more than a couple of home games in a row from late 72 until we left AP, attending all the very low & very low, low attendances we had, the Boro at home was a must in our household
Charlton's Champions was my favourite era, 48 years & still remembered as a great team, with great players
John Neal’s teams were awesome too with exciting times & very good players, Bobby Murdoch’s era brought us down to earth mind with a bump & reality that it wasn't set in stone we would have great players, in very good Boro teams
I enjoyed Malcolm Allison’s reign as manager, you felt part of something with the dwindling crowds & back's to the wall at times of struggle
the late, great Willie Maddren’s term as manager, well he was just so unlucky, I would often say, the right man at the wrong time, until @coluka rightly pointed out, no erimus, the right man at the right time, he managed the club at our lowest ebb, made some excellent signings, tried unsuccessfully to make one or two other exceptional signings, but it just wouldn’t work for him, among his many excellent signings, his major signing was bringing Bruce Rioch to our football club, as 1st team coach
Willie knew it just wasn’t going to be at the Boro & after a succession of defeats was relieved of his duties, he had brought a group of players to the club who would go on to become household names, Boro legends in their own right
Bruce was given temporary charge of the Boro, with one request, try & keep the Boro in the 2nd division, Bruce tried but was unsuccessful & the Boro were relegated to the 3rd division away to Shrewsbury on the final day of the season
On the 21st May 1986, following relegation, the Boro went in to voluntary liquidation, what followed that summer was to become one of the most incredible seasons that many of us Boro fans were fortunate to witness & most likely never see again, Boro & Bruce, the last person Willie Maddren brought to the Boro & most certainly Willie Maddren’s finest purchase, were made for each other & 3 fantastic season's followed
I can still see the celebrations before the Luton game, a number of ex-players paraded around all sides of the cinder path, Mannion, Maddren, Hickton, Boam, Platt, Hardwick, Mogga, Craggs, Hodgson to name but a few
I was lucky enough to be at the front of the holgate taking plenty of photos & getting my season ticket book signed by some of the ex-players
A fantastic sight to see when all 4 stands, with scarves waving, sang in unison ‘walk on’, followed by the naming of the new stadium being unveiled
The party atmosphere could make the players complacent, a very important game was to be played, the Luton game was massive, with one team going up automatically this was a game we HAD to win, not only avoiding the dreaded playoffs but to push us ahead of our closest promotion rivals for that one spot, plus, we lost our very 1st home league game at Ayresome Park on the 3rd of September 1903, we certainly didn't want to lose the last one
The match kicked off with the Boro players understandably feeling nervous, the atmosphere was quite muted, IIRC, then gerrriinn there, the ref awarded the Boro a penalty, the final spot kick awarded at Ayresome Park, Neil Cox took the responsibility of taking the penalty, can NC score our final 207th & final penalty at AP, unfortunately no, the crowd held their breath, noooooooo, the Luton keeper saved the spot kick, this certainly didn’t help the nervous Boro fans one bit, but super cool John Hendrie was to be our saviour, scoring 2 goals, either side of a Luton equaliser, in the 45th minute bang on half time & again in the 72nd minute, putting us Boro fans in dreamland, in the final stages chances were created which went begging, again not helping easing our nerves, eventually the ref blew the full time whistle for the final time for a league game at Ayresome Park, the sun was shining & the Boro had won, a victory parade followed, fan spilled on to the pitch to celebrate with the players, the party atmosphere continued, at this point we weren’t sure of automatic promotion, this came a few days later when Bolton drew at Stoke & Boro were up
In my time following the mighty Boro, we should have won the 1st division, we should have won the FAC & could & should have won the League cup, went in to liquidation, locked out of our ground, numerous promotions & relegations, one of the best ever in Graeme Souness, though we did win one piece of silverware when we won the ASC in 1975, beating Fulham 1-0 over 2 legs
Some 26 managers & approx 650 players have played for the mighty Boro & graced Ayresome Park
To name a few
As well as Charltons aces
Bruces legends
George Camsell
Tim Williamson
Micky Fenton
George Hardwick
Wilf Mannion
Brian Clough
Alan Peacock
George Elliott
Carr brothers
Andrew Nesbit Wilson
Harold Shepherdson
Willie Whigham
Gordon Jones
Stand Anderson
Boro team in this historic day
Alan Miller - RIP
Neil Cox
Derek Whyte
Steve Vickers
Nigel Pearson
Clayton Blackmore
Bryan Robson
Jamie Pollock
Jan Aaga Fjortoft
John Hendrie
Alan Moore
Subs
Uwe Fuchs
Janie Mareno
Stephen Pears, our 1st ever loanee
Attendance, 23,903
I told my kids, once the Boro break your heart they have you for life
Ayresome Park thanks for the memories
UTMB - erimus
BORO
