Great post from Alister Baldwin!
Went to Ayresome Park in 1993-at the home end, standing-toilet facility was just
as described! But the Boro side was far better, in fact quite a cracker at his
debut-Jackie Charlton's side, wasnt'it?
Funny thing is I was having coffee with an Olympiakos veteran last night talking
about me watching him at my first match in 1967-a European tie v Juventus It was
a full house , at 42.124, but I saw three goals less than Alister Baldwin did! A
stalemate
Greetings all-and let us all have a nice football season
Theo

--- On Sun, 8/3/08, bill laing <billy318124@...> wrote:

From: bill laing <billy318124@...>
Subject: Re: [Sixties and Seventies Soccer] My first Boro game
To: sixtiesandseventiessoccer@yahoogroups.com
Date: Sunday, August 3, 2008, 1:35 PM






great post,thanks a lot ! my sentiments to a tee......... .what about Bosco
Jankovic by the way ?
 
Bill

--- On Sun, 3/8/08, Alister Baldwin <balders1864@ yahoo.co. uk> wrote:

From: Alister Baldwin <balders1864@ yahoo.co. uk>
Subject: [Sixties and Seventies Soccer] My first Boro game
To: sixtiesandseventies soccer@yahoogrou ps.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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