Craig Johnston made his Boro debut January 1978

Erimus74

Well-known member
When he was named in the starting lineup at home to Everton in the 4th round of the FAC 28th

Boro manager John Neal was showing great faith in our exciting youngster, with Craig in this case

After seeing the Boro playing friendlies in Australia during Jack Charlton term as Boro manager Craig paid his own air fare to the UK, hoping to make it as a professional footballer, 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 certainly did & his story to get from arriving in the UK to his 1st Boro outing & a glamorous FAC tie at home to Everton is a must hear on his podcast, our reward after knocking out Coventry 3-0 in the 3rd round

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

John Neal had seen enough during his reserve outings & so gave Craig his debut, wearing the No10 shirt in place of Tony McAndrew

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
Boro went in to a 3-0 lead, Everton brought on Duncan McKenzie & at the end we were hanging on for victory, but we did & 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 have ever witnessed at AP

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


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