This day 1974 & my holgate debut

Erimus74

Erimus74

Well-known member
This day the 20th April 1974 my 1st ever visit in to the holgate when on the morning of the game my dad said, right Gordon, we're going in the holgate for the match
13 year old, wow, so grown up, boysender up until then

Sheff Weds were the visitors for our final home game of this fantastic & my favourite season ever

What a game to make your debut in the Holgate, Boro 8 Sheff Weds 0

Graeme Souness scored the only Boro hat trick of that fantatsic season, as the mighty Boro finished off their home campaigne handing out a hammering to Wednesday
Souness became the 40th different Boro player to score a hat trick, the 80th hat trick scored at AP & 113th in total since we became a football league club back in 1899
Sheff Wed old boy, John Hickton, started the scoring, such a massive win
When the final whistle went the mighty Boro paraded the 2nd divison championship around Ayresome Park

Goals by, big John, David Mills, Bobby Murdock one each, a brace from Alan Foggon, for their 10th, 11th, 5th & 18th of the campaigne respectively & 3 from Graeme 'I'd walk a miilion miles for one of your goals' Souness, taking his tally to the season to 7

Attendance - 25,287

The sad thing about that day, we scored 8 goals & paraded the championship & all I can remember is our best ever CH & captain, IMHO mind, Stuey Boam, east end seast when at 3 nil up, heading over the bar, when he should have scored

The best ever Boro team for me

Boro team:-

Jim Platt
John Craggs
Frank Spraggon
Graeme Souness
Stuey Boam
Willie Maddren
Bobby Murdoch
David Mills
John Hickton
Alan Foggon
David Armstrong
Sub
Harry Charlton
Screenshot_20220420_000418.jpgScreenshot_20220420_000409.jpgScreenshot_20220420_000356.jpgScreenshot_20220420_000346.jpgScreenshot_20220420_000334.jpgScreenshot_20220420_000324.jpgScreenshot_20220420_000313.jpg
 
Last edited:
Great article and decent song. Interesting to see the EG use the word “soccer” . When did we stop using it in the U.K?
 
I remember watching the scores come in the TV Rentals in Guisborough high street and then heading next door to the Orange Cafe to celebrate, marvellous times!
 
Last edited:
I was there too, on the Holgate. I vividly remember the game - I’d never seen so much goalmouth action close up - and that Gazette headline, which I simply didn’t understand - WTF is an ‘Eightsome Reeler’?!?

It was literally years before I came across a reference that explained it. And, of course, it turned out it was just the usual crappy headline pun.

Just like the ‘Mills Bomb Sinks Birmingham’ perennial, that made no sense to anyone who didn’t know what a Mills Bomb actually was, which was pretty much anyone under the age of 50.

We’ll done Erimus, that’s a tremendous post!
 
Erimus74 said:
This day the 20th April 1974 my 1st ever visit in to the holagte when on the morning of the game my dad said, right Gordon we're going in the holagte for the match
13 year old, wow, so grown up, boysender up until then

Sheff Weds were the visitors for our final home game of this fantastic & my favourite season ever

What a game to make your debut in the Holgate, Boro 8 Sheff Weds 0

Graeme Souness scored the only Boro hat trick of that fantatsic season as the mighty Boro finished off their home campaigne handing out a hammering to Wednseday, Souness became the 40th different Boro player to score a hattrick, the 80th hattrick scored at AP & 113th in total since we became a football league club back in 1899
Sheff Wed old boy, John Hickton, started the scoring, such a massive win, when the final whistle went the mighty Boro parading the 2nd divison championship around Ayresome Park

Goals by, big John, David Mills, Bobby Murdock one each, a brace from Alan Foggon, for their 10th, 1th 5th & 18th of the campaigne respectively & 3 from Graeme 'I'd walk a miilion miles for one of your goals' Souness, taking his tally to the season to 7

Attendance - 25,287

The sad thing about that day, we scored 8 goals & paraded the championship & all I can remember is our best ever CH & captain, IMHO mind, Stuey Boam, east end seast end, at 3 nil up, heading over the bar, when he should have scored

The best ever Boro team for me

Boro team:-

Jim Platt
John Craggs
Frank Spraggon
Graeme Souness
Stuey Boam
Willie Maddren
Bobby Murdoch
David Mills
John Hickton
Alan Foggon
David Armstrong
Sub
Harry Charlton
View attachment 37505View attachment 37506View attachment 37507View attachment 37508View attachment 37510View attachment 37511View attachment 37512
Click to expand...
Wow!
What a side!!!!
 
Luca Brazi said:
I was there too, on the Holgate. I vividly remember the game - I’d never seen so much goalmouth action close up - and that Gazette headline, which I simply didn’t understand - WTF is an ‘Eightsome Reeler’?!?

It was literally years before I came across a reference that explained it. And, of course, it turned out it was just the usual crappy headline pun.

Just like the ‘Mills Bomb Sinks Birmingham’ perennial, that made no sense to anyone who didn’t know what a Mills Bomb actually was, which was pretty much anyone under the age of 50.

We’ll done Erimus, that’s a tremendous post!
Click to expand...
Cheers Luca
 
What a game this was. We had a season ticket in the East stand but for some reason my dad and his friend got us tickets in the centre of the upper North Stand for this game (no idea why). What a game, it felt so special though, I had a bovril and a Newboulds pork pie and thought I was the bees knees. Souness’s hattrick stood out as we swamped Wednesdays, we were unstoppable, I didn’t want the season to end, My first ever Boro season as a ST holder ended with a bang. As a kid I thought this would be a lifelong obsession with victory, joy, trophies galore, defeat was for losers, Boro were winners, the team just rolled off the tip of your tongue quicker than you could say Jack Charlton. I was right with the obsession part, the rest was a moot point 🤣
 
I'd moved to the Chicken Run by then to be with me Dad. Best Boro team ever! We have had loads of great individuals and won a cup and been in Europe but that team.......Wow!
Everyone of that era can name the first 11 off by heart
Supplemented by Salty Brine Eric McMordie Malcom Smith Brian Taylor and Bill Gates( have l missed any Erimus?)
Gives me goosebumps just thinking about that match and season
 
I think the only others who played were Jimmy Cochrane, Harry Charlton and Pat Cuff who got a couple of games after promotion was won.
Fantastic team Fantastic manager
 
Erimus74 said:
No1 in the charts on this day

Excellent 👍👌

Click to expand...
Never understood why he changed the lyrics for TOTP. The original he penned was much better:

We had joy, we had fun
We had Sunderland on the run
But the joy didn’t last
Cos the b*****ds ran to fast

Happy days 😂
 
Big Jack and the days when you could tackle. If you got past Souness (very few did) Stuey Boam would launch you.
I met a guy at a wake 4 years ago who used to big Big Jack's fitness coach. Ex SBS. He took the team up to the dunes and had them running up and down them for a hour or so and they did loads of Army PT. We were fit as fk and it showed. A hard team as well.
The best of times.
 
coluka said:
Never understood why he changed the lyrics for TOTP. The original he penned was much better:

We had joy, we had fun
We had Sunderland on the run
But the joy didn’t last
Cos the b*****ds ran to fast

Happy days 😂
Click to expand...
too. C'mon Erimus
Signed
Grammar Police
 
Luca Brazi said:
I was there too, on the Holgate. I vividly remember the game - I’d never seen so much goalmouth action close up - and that Gazette headline, which I simply didn’t understand - WTF is an ‘Eightsome Reeler’?!?

It was literally years before I came across a reference that explained it. And, of course, it turned out it was just the usual crappy headline pun.

Just like the ‘Mills Bomb Sinks Birmingham’ perennial, that made no sense to anyone who didn’t know what a Mills Bomb actually was, which was pretty much anyone under the age of 50.

We’ll done Erimus, that’s a tremendous post!
Click to expand...
 
I was there though nearly didn't make it. I had flu and felt rough as ****

Back in those days you really didn't want to miss a moment.
 
Erimus74 said:
Boro 8 Sheff Weds 0

Goals by, big John, David Mills, Bobby Murdock one each, a brace from Alan Foggon, for their 10th, 11th, 5th & 18th of the campaigne respectively & 3 from Graeme 'I'd walk a miilion miles for one of your goals' Souness, taking his tally to the season to 7

Attendance - 25,287

The best ever Boro team for me

Boro team:-

Jim Platt
John Craggs
Frank Spraggon
Graeme Souness
Stuey Boam
Willie Maddren
Bobby Murdoch
David Mills
John Hickton
Alan Foggon
David Armstrong
Sub
Harry Charlton
Click to expand...
It was a really great team.

Some observations -
There are 4 players in that team who scored more goals than this season's top scorer.
Man for man, that team of 48 years ago was much better in every single position than today's team. Collectively they were much, much, much better.
The crowd that saw Boro batter Wed was only slightly more than saturday's turnout v Huddersfield.
The 1974 team let the opposition worry about them. They took to the field and got on with it, didn't spend the first half worrying about the opposition.
Replace Foggon or the ageing Hickton with a top class striker in 1975 and Boro would have been a match for anyone.
 
Soutra said:
It was a really great team.

Some observations -
There are 4 players in that team who scored more goals than this season's top scorer.
Man for man, that team of 48 years ago was much better in every single position than today's team. Collectively they were much, much, much better.
The crowd that saw Boro batter Wed was only slightly more than saturday's turnout v Huddersfield.
The 1974 team let the opposition worry about them. They took to the field and got on with it, didn't spend the first half worrying about the opposition.
Replace Foggon or the ageing Hickton with a top class striker in 1975 and Boro would have been a match for anyone.
Click to expand...
Would be interesting to see how many players were actually used that season. The team picked itself and didn't seem to chop and change.
 
Wiseman_Vaughn said:
Would be interesting to see how many players were actually used that season. The team picked itself and didn't seem to chop and change.
Click to expand...
Only one sub allowed in those days, so the matchday squad didn't need to be so big. As you say, usually the team picked itself.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top