Thanks for that Alister. A good piece. I echo your points regarding the names of
the leagues  & also the shirt numbers , names & sponsors. I started watching
football at the 74 world cup & went to games the following season. For me it was
better then than now but that could open up a whole debate.


Scott




--- On Sun, 3/8/08, Alister Baldwin <balders1864@...> wrote:
From: Alister Baldwin <balders1864@...>
Subject: [Sixties and Seventies Soccer] My first Boro game
To: sixtiesandseventiessoccer@yahoogroups.com
Date: Sunday, 3 August, 2008, 10:35 AM











I've recently been writing about my first experience of watching
Boro play in 1974.

See below for an extract from my book.

February 23rd 1974 was a significant day in the life of Alister James Baldwin;
it was the day I went to my first Boro game.  Simon Berry’s dad took me and
Simon to Ayresome Park to see Middlesbrough play Swindon Town.  We arrived in
good time for kick off, purchased a programme outside the ground and made our
way to the Turnstile.  We entered the ground and climbed the steps that led to
the section of the ground affectionately known as ‘The Boys End’.  There
was nothing classy about this place, if you looked down while climbing the steps
you could see blokes taking a pee against a wall with a trough at the bottom,
this was the Gents Toilet.  ‘The Boys End’ was in one corner of the ground
and was just a mass of concrete terracing, with concrete barriers.  I realised
that for future games I was going to have to take something to stand on, as I
couldn’t see a thing, but the atmosphere was electric.  From this moment
onwards I would eat,

sleep and drink football. The sad thing is I can still remember that Team line
up as if it was only yesterday

1  Jim Platt                           

2 John Craggs                     

3 Frank Spraggon    

4 Graeme Souness

5 Stuart Boam

6 Willie Maddren

7 Bobby Murdoch

8 David Mills

9 John Hickton

10 Alan Foggon

11 David Armstrong        

 

 

The attendance was 23,194 and I was one of them.  Boro won the game 2 – 1
with goals from John Hickton and Alan Foggon.  This was the 2nd victory in a
winning streak that was to last 9 games, which saw Boro run away with the 2nd
Division title by 15 points and that was when it was only 2 points for a win. 
They even thrashed Sheffield Wednesday 8 – 0 (Souness Hat-trick) for good
measure, at the end of the season.

The mastermind behind this team was manager, Jack Charlton.  He had only been
appointed in 1973 and it was his first managerial post. Apart from his success
on the park, one significant change he made was to introduce the White Band
across the Red shirt.  To fans like me, that is the only true Boro shirt.

 

 

 

Back in the Seventies Football was simple:-

-          There were 4 Divisions. - Division 1, Division 2, Division 3
and (go on, I’ll let you guess the last one)? None of this Coca Cola
Championship, League 1, and League 2 rubbish.  Surely if you win the
Championship, you’re the best team in the country.  If you play in League 1,
you’re playing in the top Division. 

-          None of this squad rotation malarkey.  If you weren’t in
the 1st XI you didn’t get a game.

-           There was only one substitute allowed.

-          Players shirts were numbered from 1 – 11 and no. 12 for
the sub. No shirt sponsor, no name on the shirt.

-          Players were allowed to tackle from behind; punch-ups were
common place, no bookings for taking your shirt off (not that you could get
those long sleeved cotton shirts off, especially in the rain).

-          No Foreign Players on ridiculous wages.  The most foreign
Boro got were, Jim Platt (Ballymena, Northern Ireland), Graeme Souness
(Edinburgh, Scotland), and Bobby Murdoch (Glasgow, Scotland).



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