This day 1977 - The start of a new era

Erimus74

Erimus74

Well-known member
John Neal, certainly in my top 3 all time favourite Boro managers, who, IMHO, had a hard an enormous task following in the footsteps of the best ever Boro manager & what a man to follow, but for me, he came in & change the whole structure of the playing side & went on to become an excellent manager for the mighty Boro, built a very good, young, exciting team, a team that should have won silverware

John neal couldn't have picked a harder debut in the Boro dugout than Liverpool & a certain Scottish international CF in Kenny Dalglish making his Livepool debut too
Like Big Jack had done in his debut season in the dugout, John Neal did likewise, the mighty Boro kicking off his 1st season as manager wearing an iconic strip, a quality Adidas round neck awesome shirt & infront of a full house too

Both Boro & Liverpool included players making their debuts & both record signings too, with Boro paying £90k for John Mahoney, registered No512 & Liverpool shelling out £400k & a British record transfer, for Kenny Dalglish

From mine & my brothers spot in the packed Holgate, Kenny Dalglish opened the scoring, Davey Armstrong equalised & that's how it remained

Long before sky ruined our beautiful game, players wore No's 1-11, the sub wore No12, no names on the backs of the shirts, no dancing when scoring a goal just a raise of the arm in recognition, the dug out had the manager, sub, sponge man trainer, doctor, not like today everyman & his dog sat in the dugout 😔

John Neals 1st picked team

Jim Platt, best Boro keeper
John Craggs, awesome right back & should have played for England
Terry Cooper, still good enough to play for England
Graeme Souness, for me the best ever Boro player
Stuey Boam best Boro captain
Willie Maddren best Boro defender without a doubt
John Mahoney record signing
David Mills, loved Millsy went on to become the record signing
Billy Woof subbed by Mr Middlesbrough
Tony McAndrew, youngest Boro player to score a 1st team hattrick & probably our best Mr versatile player
Davey Armstrong, incredible & unbelievable consecutive appearances
Sub
Mr Middlesbrough John Hickton my favourite ever Boro player

Attendance - 30,805

Liverpool 20-08-77.jpg
Season book pass.jpgJohn Mahoney.jpg1977.jpgDavey Armstrong signed.jpegDavid Mills SHOOT.jpeg
 
What a team we went onto become, Johnston ,Proctor Hodgson, Terry Cochrane And Mickey Burns,
Brilliant fast sweeping football, some of the best i have seen from a Boro team,
Shame Charlie Amer messed it all up.
 
whinneybanksaint said:
What a team we went onto become, Johnston ,Proctor Hodgson, Terry Cochrane And Mickey Burns,
Brilliant fast sweeping football, some of the best i have seen from a Boro team,
Shame Charlie Amer messed it all up.
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Without a doubt

And to think we let JN hand in his notice & the board accepted it too
 
His long term vision was exciting, keep the excellent crop of players coming through & continue to bring in the right players to complimemt each other, even paying big price tags, maybe a CB pairing & a striker to challenge Micky Burns, with Dave Shearer stepping down to be played when options are limited
It worked at 1st with record signings John Mahoney followed by Billy Ashcroft coming in, then the most we played for a keeper in Jim Stewart arriving, whatever fans opinions on each player mentioned the club were spending money on the 1st team
Good signings Micky Burns, Terry Cochrane & Irving Nattrass coming in & only absolute legend Graeme Souness, departing for pastures new

I can still remember one saturday afternoon at AP JN's final season when we beat Aston Villa 2-1in December 1980, what ended up a snow blizzard, with goals from Dave Shearer & Craig Johnston, I was buzzing on the sunday morning & shocked when reading the sunday morning papers my dad had got, the headlines from John Neal saying, I wish i could keep these kids

The problem was the board were noticing clubs were monitoring members of the 1st team & big money mentioned, the board were interested in cashing in & recouping some of the money they paid for players mentioned, the start to 1986 was set

Sadly John Neal had had enough & resigned knowing the team was to be broken up & with it his long term vision

Bobby Murdoch followed & didnt really stand a chance

My take on it anyway

 
Some great times with John Neal at the helm, we were just too inconsistent and terrible away from home, a couple of times we looked like we might win a Cup or get in the Uefa Cup. Loved Terry Cochrane and Hodgy, my first real Boro hereos. Wonder what would have happened if we had signed Mario Kempes!
 
Was John Neal deserving of top 3 ? He certainly managed well when he was here and maintained Boro as a middling first division team. He brought on the likes of Craig Johnson, Mark Proctor and Davey Hodgson. He however left us with little legacy. And within a season of him departing we went down. And hurtling downwards to administration. Johnson to Liverpool Armstrong to Southampton Hodgson to Liverpool.
 
Cardiffdaffs said:
Was John Neal deserving of top 3 ? He certainly managed well when he was here and maintained Boro as a middling first division team. He brought on the likes of Craig Johnson, Mark Proctor and Davey Hodgson. He however left us with little legacy. And within a season of him departing we went down. And hurtling downwards to administration. Johnson to Liverpool Armstrong to Southampton Hodgson to Liverpool.
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I wouldn't have him above Brucie, Big Jack, Robbo or Steve Mac from my time supporting the Boro, but it's all about personal opinions!
 
Cardiffdaffs said:
Was John Neal deserving of top 3 ? He certainly managed well when he was here and maintained Boro as a middling first division team. He brought on the likes of Craig Johnson, Mark Proctor and Davey Hodgson. He however left us with little legacy. And within a season of him departing we went down. And hurtling downwards to administration. Johnson to Liverpool Armstrong to Southampton Hodgson to Liverpool.
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He certainly was for me, all about opinions
 
I remember watching Shoot (Tyne-Tees' sunday afternoon football show) when John Neal was once asked about this 'Boring Boro' tag - which he was unfairly labeled with - by David Burton. To which he replied, in that laid back mackem drawl of his: 'I'd sooner be an unpopular manager of a First Division team than a popular manager of a Second Division team'.

Top man! Over 40 years on since he led us and still my favourite all time MFC manager.
 
since1970 said:
I remember watching Shoot (Tyne-Tees' sunday afternoon football show) when John Neal was once asked about this 'Boring Boro' tag - which he was unfairly labeled with - by David Burton. To which he replied, in that laid back mackem drawl of his: 'I'd sooner be an unpopular manager of a First Division team than a popular manager of a Second Division team'.

Top man! Over 40 years on since he led us and still my favourite all time MFC manager.
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He was so close to ve a top chasing team who should have won a trophy, or two, his achillles heel was our away form, very rarely lost at home, scoring goals for fun, rarely win away, scored, conceded too often
 
In that team photo I guess Souness had a contract with Shoot and the rest were smiling for the official club photographer.
 
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