Friday, January 23, 2015

BORO v CITY: A LONG HISTORY OF DISASTER

1974-75, Maine Road: Colin Bell speeds towards the midfield barrier of pre-baldness David Armstong and pre-curling tongues Graeme Souness in a two-one home win for the Blues


1975-76 League Cup semi final second leg, Maine Road. The Daily Mirror brings all the action from a memorable night as City reach Wembley after a 4-0 (4-1 on aggregrate) victory. Even the Beatles leave centre stage.
1978-79 Programme cover from the New Year's Day clash between the clubs. Peter Barnes is the thinly disguised Santa in this typically 70s "festive scene".
1978-79 Image from the same game in a subsequent programme, as Kaziu Deyna shoots for goal in the Maine Road clash, which ended 1-0 for City.
1978-79 Here is how the programme covered Deyna's winner in the same match, a 52nd minute shot with the right foot to seal the win for City.
1979-80 Programme cover from the next season, with a photo of future blue Bobby McDonald sporting the, er, famous brown of Coventry City
1979-80 For the second season running, Kaziu Deyna was the match winner. He famously swung on the crossbar after this late goal. He also scored the winner against league champions Nottingham Forest in a memorable week for the Polish star.
1979-80 Steve Daley's City career was not exactly blessed and in the Boro home game he even managed to break a toe.
1980-81 Ayresome Park. A hard fought 2-2 draw in the North East included this unfortunate goal for the home side, as Steve Mackenzie deflects the ball past reserve 'keeper Keith MacRae.
1980-81 Programme cover from the Maine Road game, won 3-2 by City
1981-82 Jim Platt looks transfixed as Trevor Francis slides in to score at Maine Road.
1981-82 Francis celebrates scoring in the same game
1981-82 Joe Corrigan under attack in the game at Ayresome Park in the same season, a dull 0-0 draw in front of just 11,709 spectators.
1983-84 The clubs meet again in the 2nd division. Here's Derk Parlane putting City ahead at Maine Road in the Blues' 2-1 victory, a win that put them 2nd in the table.
1983-84 Same game, different scorer. This is Jim Tomie, the new Kevin Keegan, making it two for City with a stylish waft of his right leg. The Kippax looks packed but Peter Swales' special crowd figure for that game was 24,466
1983-84 Alex Williams takes action in the 0-0 Ayresome Park draw, possibly the worst I have ever felt at a football match. Cold, hunger-over, hungry, bored and expecting a chasing through the streets of Middlesbrough at the end. Halcyon Days.
1984-85 The clubs are about to exit the 2nd division using spearate doors. David Phillips has just knocked another nail in the Boro coffin at Maine Road.
1991-92 An early season Premier League nightmare for Paul Lake, as he collpases at Ayresome Park, one and a bit games into a painful comeback bid. This would be the beginning of the end of his promising City career, as City lost the will to play and went down 2-0. Niall Quinn was sent off to cap an awful night.
1996-97 2nd division City give Premier League big spenders (yes, I know) Boro a real game in the 5th round of the Cup, but a late clincher from the slippers Juninho takes the visitors through, on their way to meet Chelsea in the Wembley final.
1997-98 Now the sides meet again in the league, 2nd division, with City heading downwards towards the 3rd. Uwe Rosler bangs in a dramatic Maine Road winner against table toppers Boro. A great day to be at Maine Road in a season of disasters.
1997-98 Kind Observer headline from the same match, as City prepare another false dawn for us all. Next game we went to Crewe and lost 1-0.
1997-98 Uwe Rosler's shorts are high, as are feelings in Maine Road as he salutes the North Stand after putting City ahead
2000-01 Maine Road witnesses Boro for the last time, as Gianluca Festa scores in a dull 1-1 draw with both sides back in the Premier League.
2000-01 A wild and ragged game at The Riverside, with Keith O'Neill sent off for lunging at Gerard Wiekens and a perfectly good Danny Tiatto winner ruled out for an offside that wasn't.
2000-01 More action from the same game, with City desperately in search of points to stay afloat. Yet another relegation would follow at the end of the season.
2002-03 City are at The Riverside again after a season in the second tier. Nicolas Anelka joins the action in a 3-1 defeat.
2002-03 Newsof the World report on another drab 0-0 draw, this time at the City of Manchester Stadium. 
2003-04 Paulo Wnachope fights for the ball with Franck Queudreu in a 1-2 City defeat on the penultimate day of the season at the Riverside.
2004-05 Another Boro win at the Riverside, where City's record is extremely poor.
2004-05 Perhaps the oddest moment of the lot, as Stuart Pearce *tweaks* his tactics, bringing on a second keeper to try and force the goal that would qualify City for the UEFA Cup. Strangely enough, it didn't work.
2004-05 Even worse is to come as Robbie Fowler's injury time penalty is saved by Mark Schwarzer and Boro go into Europe instead.
2006-07 Richard Dunne turns away in delight after scoring at the correct end in the sides' meeting in Manchester, a 1-0 win for City.
2007-08 Another *interesting* moment between the sides, as Elano finds some electric pace to exit the playing surface after an astonishing 1-8 reverse on the final day of the season. Sven Goran Eriksson thanks the fans for their support as the axe falls on him and the curtain falls on a complete debacle.

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