[Lord Snooty]

Middlesbrough v Huddersfield Town
The Sky Bet Championship
Monday April 18th - 12:30 ko
at the Riverside Stadium

Huddersfield Town travel to Middlesbrough to the Riverside Stadium on Monday dinnertime for a crucial game for both sides. Crucial for Town to keep up with our outside chance of making it to automatic promotion. And crucial for the home side to keep up their hopes of making it into the Play Offs.

Both teams drew on Good Friday and out of the top 8, only Luton Town won, which has brought Coventry and even Millwall back into having a chance at snatching that last place in the top 6. This is surely the most open race for promotion in Championship history. Usually, most of the places are sorted by now, with just two or three playing for one place. But now, although we hold the advantage of being in third, it's still possible for us to cock up and miss out.

And going to a stadium where we have never won, is not filling me with optimism. Lose this and the chasing pack could make it really tough for us going into Friday night and a game against Barnsley who could be already relegated by then. A win at the Riverside though and we're just about there as far as the Play Offs go. And with Bournemouth's tough run in, who knows where this strange, incredible, fascinating season will take us?

If we do win, early in the day, that puts pressure on the rest. Come on Town! And come on you Baggies!

Other games of interest today.....

Blackburn Rovers v Stoke City
Cardiff City v Luton Town
Coventry City v AFC Bournemouth
Millwall v Hull City
Bristol City v Sheffield United (17:30)
Nottingham Forest v West Bromwich Albion (20:00)

As for team news, well Danny Ward was injured and had to go off at half time on Friday. Head coach, Carlos Corberán hinted after the match that he was feeling a bit of a niggle and so hopefully his withdrawal was just preventative, so he could well be back to lead the line. Harry Toffolo took a hefty whack from constantly cheating thug, Charlie Austin, but he said in a post match interview that he was perfectly fine.

As for Boro, their manager, Chris Wilder made a big call on Friday by changing his goalkeeper. Odd thing to do at this stage of the season, but Luke Daniels replaced Joe Lumley for what was his first appearance since early December and it paid off with him keeping a clean sheet. Isiah Jones and Sol Bamba also returned to the side.

It seems that former Town junior, Matt Crooks, who is Boro's leading scorer this season, may be missing for this match. Apparently he got his 15th yellow card of the season at Bournemouth, meaning he now starts a three match ban.


A brief history of Middlesbrough FC: formed in 1876, following a suggestion at a tripe supper at the Corporation Hotel, by members of a cricket club. Soon after formation, they were split when some members left to form another club Middlesbrough Ironopolis. There were talks to merge the two some years later, which never came off and so it was Middlesbrough FC who were eventually elected into the Football League in 1899. They were promoted to Division 1 in their 2nd season and moved into their new ground Ayresome Park, which was situated right next to the Ironopolis ground, the Paradise Ground. They stayed in the first division, eventually reaching their highest position of 3rd at the end of the 1913/14 season, just as war broke out.

They were relegated in 1924, but came back up again as 2nd Division champions three years later. Straight back down though and straight back up again as champions, they remained in the top flight until 1954. They had gotten a good side together, reaching 4th in the table, once more just as war broke out again and the team were broken up.

That relegation in 1954 was the start of 20 years outside of the top tier. During that time in the 2nd Division, a locally born striker called Brian Clough played for them. He was as good at scoring goals as he was at managing teams to winning trophies later in life. In four consecutive seasons he scored 40+ goals and by the time he left for Sunderland he had scored 204 goals in 222 league matches.

Things got worse in 1966 when they went down to the 3rd division. That was just for one season though and by the early 70s they had worked their way back into the top flight and in 1976 they won the Anglo Scottish Cup, beating Fulham 1-0 on aggregate. But they were struggling for the next few years and two relegations later saw them playing once more in division 3 in 1986.

The club were about to be wound up and the gates of Ayresome Park were padlocked, meaning they started the 86/87 season playing home games at Hartlepool. Ten minutes before the club were wound up, they were bought out by Steve Gibson and things started looking better. Two straight promotions and suddenly they were back in the first division again. That promotion to the top flight was via the play offs when it was against one of the bottom teams in the first who were playing to avoid relegation. So Boro went up and Chelsea of all people, went down. Lol! But Boro went down the next season.

Chelsea had their revenge though in 1990. Boro had reached their first ever Wembley final, the Zenith Data Systems Cup (a poxy little competition for English clubs who were banned for Europe at the time), and the Blues beat them 1-0. They went up again though, finishing as runners up in 1992 and so becoming members of the first Premier League and so then became the first team relegated from the Premier League later that season.

They were back up again two years later and started life back in the Premier at their new ground, the Riverside Stadium. They had Bryan Robson now in the manager's seat and they went on a massive spending spree, buying big names such as Brazilian international Juninho and Juventus striker Fabrizio Ravanelli.

They almost bought instant success, reaching their first League Cup Final, but lost to Leicester City after a replay. Then they reached the FA Cup Final for the first time and lost that as well, this time to their nemesis Chelsea. Despite all this almost cup success, Boro got relegated again. Bounced straight back again though as runners up and got to the League Cup Final again, and got beat by Chelsea again.

Steve McClaren took over from Robson in 2001 and in 2004 led them to their first major trophy, the League Cup, beating Bolton Wanderers 2-1 in the final, with goals from Joseph-Désiré Job and a Boudewijn Zenden penalty. This qualified them for the UEFA Cup. They qualified again for the next two seasons, eventually reaching the 2006 final, which they lost 0-4 to Sevilla.

McClaren left to become England manager at the end of the season, to be replaced by the then club captain and now England boss himself, Gareth Southgate. He had them comfortably mid table, but despite a positive start to the 2008/09 season, they got relegated to the Championship. They reached the 2015 Play Offs, losing to Norwich in the final, but then got promoted as runners up the following season under the managership of Aitor Karanka. That was just another one season at the top table of English football and they were relegated just as Huddersfield Town were getting promoted.

They did make the Play Offs in 2018, but lost 1-0 on aggregate to Aston Villa. they missed the Play Offs by a single point in the next season, then had two seasons of mid table mediocrity.

Head to Head



Middlesbrough lead the head to head with 44 wins to Town's 33, with 20 draws.

We have met five times since being relegated back to the Championship and have only won one of them. That was the 3-2 win at the JSS in November 2020, played behind closed doors. Marvin Johnson gave Boro, who were managed by Neil Warnock, an early lead. Carel Eiting equalised and then Fraizer Campbell made it 2-1. It was all going well until Naby Sarr upended Jonny Howson in the box for Britt Assombalonga to equalise from the spot. That looked to be a couple of points thrown away, but no. Up popped Josh Koroma in the 85th minute to score a beauty from the edge of the area.

Last season, Isaac Mbenza scored from a direct free kick to give us an early lead at the Riverside. This was only the second goal we have ever scored in the league at this particularly tough bogey ground. The only other league goal we have came in  2013 when James Vaughan scored in a 1-1 draw. Despite Mbenza's goal and the fact that they had Paddy McNair sent off, we still lost through a goal by Duncan Whatmore and an Ashley Fletcher penalty. So that's 7 league games there, with just that one point gained. Time for that to change.

Earlier this season, they came to us in November and beat us 2-1 with Whatmore on target twice. This of course, was the last defeat before we went on an amazing 17 league match unbeaten run.

So going back to the old days now and we first played them when we had been promoted to the First Division in 1920. Both games were lost. It was a 2-0 defeat on Christmas Day 1920 at Ayresome Park and a 1-0 defeat at Leeds Road a couple of days later. Both games had crowds of over 30,000 there.

They beat us 5-1 in the next season at theirs, but then at the 4th attempt, we got our first win. On Saturday the 29th of April 1922, we won the FA Cup Final against Preston. How long did the players have to celebrate? Not long at all. Middlesbrough were coming to play at Leeds Road on the Monday afternoon. A crowd of 29,000 turned up to greet their heroes who had played up and brought the Cup back to Huddersfield. And it was a 2-1 win against Boro, with Clem Stephenson getting the first with Jackie Carr putting the ball through his own net to clinch it for Town.

We beat them in the first game of our first League Championship winning season of 23/24. Charlie Wilson getting the only goal of the game at Leeds Road. We then lost at theirs 2-0 a week later. But Boro went down at the end of the season and so missed out on playing us in our other two League Championships. They did come back up though in 1927 and so we met again. They did the double over us this time as we ended the season as runners up. Would we have won those other two league titles if we'd had to play this bogey side? Who knows? Or cares?

We did beat them in the FA Cup though in that season. It was in the 5th round at home and we beat them 4-0 on our road to Wembley. David Steele, George Brown, Alex Jackson and Billy Smith scoring.

Anyway, Ayresome Park was proving to be a particularly difficult place to go. But we did get the win at last, on our 6th visit there, in the 1929/30 season. Jackson got another one in this game, as well as Billy Fogg and Harry Raw in a 3-1 win.

We were Division One rivals throughout the 1930s and then again after the war and the early part of the 1950s, including a shocking 8-0 defeat at their place. I think that was our record defeat at the time.

Town then went down for one season, but came straight back up. Boro went down in that season so the last time we ever met at the top tier of English football was in the 1953/54 season. Town did the double as we finished 3rd in the league. Jimmy Glazzard scored both goals in the 2-1 win at home and then we had a rare away win at theirs, 3-1 with goals from Vic Metcalfe, Gerry Burrell and another from Glazzard in a 3-0 win.

So the next time the two teams met would be in 56/57, the first time in the 2nd Division. It was another shocker at Ayresome Park as they stuffed us 7-1 this time on Easter Monday. They only had 24 hours to recover as Boro came to Leeds Road the next day and left with the points, beating us 1-0.

That was an Easter double header. The next season was a Christmas double header. We had just lost one of the most ridiculous games in Football League history on the 21st of December 1957 when after being 5-1 up at Charlton with 20 minutes left, we managed to lose 7-6. The next game was on Christmas Day when Boro came to Town. Les Massie scored in a 1-0 win and it was all off to Ayresome Park for the Boxing Day drubbing at their place. Well no actually. It never happened. We won 1-0 again. Bob Ledger got the goal.

It was business as usual though in the next four seasons with four defeats at their place. But then, out of the blue came a thrashing of a different kind at Ayresome Park. We won 5-0! That was the third game of the 62/63 season, with Eddie Boot in charge. Goals in this one were by Derek Stokes (2), Ray Wilson and Kevin McHale, with a Gordon Jones own goal as well.

An amazing game happened in August 1965 at Leeds Road against the Boro. It was a 6-0 win for Town and was only the second occasion in our history that we had two players scoring a hat trick in the same match. Those two were Les Massie and Alan Gilliver (the others were Ernie Islip and Billy Smith against PNE in 1922). Massie followed that up in the return fixture with another hat trick in a 3-1 win at Ayresome Park.

The most famous match in the history of this fixture was a 1-1 draw at Ayresome Park in 1970. The significance? Well this was the match that clinched our promotion to the 1st Division. Steve Smith scored the goal, an equaliser if I remember correctly. I wasn't there, but most Town fans of that era will probably tell you they were.

Those First Division days didn't last long and we played Boro when we came down and then didn't play them for a few years as we kept on going down. The next set of fixtures came in the 80s and another rare win at Ayresome. That was on New Years Day 1986 when Liverpool and Wales legend Joey Jones scored for us in a 1-0 win.

Our last game ever at Ayresome Park came in the season after and fittingly enough, was another loss, 2-0 this time on the 12th of March 1988. Our record on that ground is particularly poor, as it is at their new ground. Eight wins, eight draws and a whopping twenty four defeats.

Our first visit to the new place was in the League Cup in 1996 when Andy Payton scored a brilliant goal in the 87th minute at the Riverside against the star studded Smoggies of that era. Unfortunately they had already got 5 goals, but that didn't stop us celebrating like it was a win. Their goals came from Brazilians Juninho and Emerson, two from Fabrizio Ravanelli and one from Danish international Mikkel Beck.

Strangely though, they got relegated that season, despite all the money they had spent on players and so we had our first league game at the Riverside on the 28th of October 1997, twelve months after that big defeat in the League Cup. Beck was on target again, twice, and that muppet Paul Merson scored the opener in a 3-0 defeat. They followed that by beating us at our place on Boxing Day with a Kevin Gray own goal.

So I don't want to dishearten you, dear reader, but our record away at Middlesbrough is simply appalling. We have won there 8 times from 48 games, drawn 9 and have lost 31.

Come on, lads. This is time to change that. We won at Fulham. We can beat this lot!

So what's going on down by the Riverside? Managed nowadays by Chris Wilder, the former Halifax Town manager. He was born in Stocksbridge in 1967 and started his playing career as a right back for Sheffield United. This was after being a trainee at far away Southampton.

He won two promotions with the Blunts, from the 3rd to the 1st, and played a few games in the top tier with them, but by the time the Premier League had been invented, Wilder had gone off to Rotherham. He spent the rest of his career mostly around the north in the lower leagues at the likes of Notts County, Bradford City, back to Sheff U, then a brief spell down south with Brighton, then back up north to end his playing days with Halifax Town.

In 2001, when he packed in playing, he got the job of managing Alfreton Town and in the half a season he was in charge, the club won four trophies. He was poached back by his former club, the Shaymen who were by now in the Conference and stayed with them until 2008. In that time he got them to the Play Offs, where they were beaten by Hereford Utd and over saw the club going into liquidation, owing a vast amount of money, equal to what amounts to something like half a modern Premier League players annual salary.

So he went off to Bury as assistant to Alan Knill. Their roles are now reversed with Knill being assistant to Wilder at Boro. He didn't stay at Gigg Lane long, moving to Oxford United for the next six seasons, winning them promotion back into the Football League in his first full season, beating York City in the Play Off Final.

After Oxford, he had a couple of years at Northampton Town, winning them the League Two title in 2016. He was then given the chance to return to Sheffield United as manager. And he took that chance, winning the League One title in his first season, then winning promotion to the Prima Donna League as runners up in the 2018/19 Championship, finishing behind Norwich City, but six points ahead of Leeds Urinals.

He guided his boyhood club to 9th in the Prem in his first season, their highest position since 91/92, when Wilder was on the playing staff there. But then they got the old second season syndrome and set about getting a points total lower than ours. They looked likely to achieve that difficult task when Wilder walked out on them in March 2021, but by the end of the season, they had failed, beating our total by 7 points. They still finished bottom though and it was his team. There's no getting away from that.

He wasn't out of work long though and when Neil Warnock left the club in November, he was appointed as the new Boro boss, getting off to such a good start that he was awarded Manager of the Month for December.

Good Friday's line up down at Bournemouth:

28 Luke Daniels
2 Anfernee Dijksteel
22 Sol Bamba
17 Paddy McNair
35 Isiah Jones
25 Matt Crooks
16 Jonny Howson
7 Marcus Tavernier
27 Marc Bola
26 Aaron Connolly
18 Duncan Watmore

Subs:
1 Joe Lumley
4 Grant Hall
11 Andraž Šporar
14 Lee Peltier
37 Josh Coburn
47 Folarin Balogun
48 Riley McGree





Middlesbrough in popular culture:

We watched Steph's Packed Lunch at dinnertime during the lockdown, presented by Boro lass Steph McGovern. It was quite entertaining at times. One of the regular guests on the show was former Crapford manager and lounge room crooner, Chris Kamara. He was born in Middlesbrough and grew up in the Park End estate. He would tell Steph on the show, about the racist abuse he suffered as a child and later in life when he was starting out in football.

Another thing Steph used to bang on about was the local delicacy that all Boro residents loved, the Parmo. According to Wikipedia it is a dish originating in Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, and a popular item of take-away food in the Teesside area. It consists of a breaded cutlet of chicken or pork topped with a white béchamel sauce and cheese, usually cheddar cheese. The name of the dish is a reference to the dish chicken parmigiana, which is made with tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese.

If you're feeling peckish after this lunchtime game, maybe that's something you could try before taking the long journey back to West Yorkshire. Sounds delish!

Anyway, enough of Steph. She never had this next Boro lad on her show. Roy Chubby Brown, again quoting Wikipedia, is an English stand-up comedian whose act consists of offensive humour, high profanity, forthright social commentary and outspoken disdain for political correctness. Me and my mates went to see him in his early days on the comedy circuit at The Entertainer in Dewsbury. He never turned up!

Middlesbrough FC's most famous fan though will be Bob Mortimer. He used to comment a lot about the club on social media, but for some reason has gone quiet lately. He recorded Boro's FA Cup Final song with another Boro lad, Chris Rea, which you can listen to on here. Also on here in the musical interlude is Chris's Stainsby Girls, which is a song about his wife. Stainsby being a reference to the Middlesbrough school she went to.





 



'ow to get theere an' wheere to sup: The post code for sat nav is TS3 6RS. That's if you're parking at the ground itself. There are limited numbers which can be pre booked, but it's a bit pricey. That's what we did the last time we went there. Quite a while back that was though. Had to get there early as well because they close the roads around the stadium close to kick off time.

The best way to get there would obviously be by boat. Along the Aire and Calder Navigation to the River Ouse and then the Humber, then up the coast to the River Tees and park up next to the stadium. If you haven't got a boat, it is still possible to get there by car. Follow the signposts marked "Riverside Stadium". Or get Google Maps up. There's no need really these days to get out the Ordnance Survey maps.

Train? Well it's just over a mile to walk from the station in the town centre. Seeing as this is a dinnertime kick off, having a pre match pint might not be what everybody's looking for. But if you are, then you'll be looking for the local Wetherspoon's, no doubt. It's a five minute walk from the station, in the other direction to the ground though. It's called the Swatters Carr, on Linthorpe Road.

If you want a beer close to the ground, there's the Six Medals, which is a Marston's on one of those retail parks, next to a Costa and a KFC.

West Yorkshire Police tweeted recently that the designated away fans pub is Chequers in Exchange Square. I've just checked on Google Maps and Chequers is miles away from Exchange Square, so not sure what old Ploddy's on about there.

Now if you want somewhere nice to go pre match, there is RSPB Saltholme Nature Reserve just across the river. With the kick off time being changed, it might not be very convenient this time, but if you get up there early enough, it'll be well worth your while. You'll have to go the long way around though, The Transporter Bridge is closed due to essential repair work.

RSPB Saltholme does have the essentials, that is, a visitor centre, cafe and shop. Some of the birds you can observe from the hides are common terns, yellow wagtails, reed buntings, reed warblers, water rails and lapwings. And they will have to watch out themselves for the peregrine falcons.

https://www.rspb.org.uk/reserves-and-eve...saltholme/

Recent form - last 6 matches:

Town 2-2 QPR
Town 2-0 Luton
Hull 0-1 Town
Town 0-3 Bournemouth
Millwall 2-0 Town
WBA 2-2 Town

Bournemouth 0-0 Boro
Boro 0-1 Hull
Boro 0-1 Fulham
Posh 0-4 Boro
Boro 0-2 Chelsea (FA Cup)
Birmingham 0-2 Boro

Town are 3rd in the Championship table with 70 points. Boro are 7th with 63.

Leading scorers:

Terriers:
Danny Ward (13)
Danel Sinani (6)
Duane Holmes (6)

Smoggies:
Matt Crooks (9)
Andraž Šporar (8)
Duncan Watmore (7)


April the 18th down the ages: How did we get on in previous matches played on this date?

1911: Chelsea (h) Div 2, WON 3-1 (James Richardson 2, Joe Jee)
1914: Notts County (h) Div 2, WON 2-1 (Herbert Morley og, Frank Mann)
1922: Everton (h) Div 1, lost 1-2 (Frank Mann)
1924: Burnley (a) Div 1, drew 1-1 (George Brown)
1925: Cardiff City (h) Div 1, drew 0-0
1930: Manchester United (a) Div 1, lost 0-1
1931: Blackpool (a) Div 1, drew 1-1 (Billy Smith)
1933: Liverpool (h) Div 1, WON 3-1 (Jackie Williams 2, Wilf Bott)
1936: Sunderland (a) Div 1, lost 3-4 (Jimmy Richardson, Albert Beech 2)
1938: Derby County (a) Div 1, WON 4-0 (Jimmy Isaac 2, Billy Price, Pat Beasley)
1942: Leeds United (h) Wartime League, WON 5-1 (Bobby Barclay, Billy Price 3, Wilkinson)
1949: Liverpool (h) Div 1, lost 0-4
1951: Chelsea (h) Div 1, WON 2-1 (Jimmy Glazzard, Harold Hassall)
1953: Fulham (h) Div 2, WON 4-2 (Tommy Cavanagh, Alistair Gunn, Vic Metcalfe 2)
1959: Sheffield Wednesday (h), Div 2 lost 1-2 (Willie Sinclair)
1960: Bristol Rovers (h) Div 2, lost 0-1
1964: Portsmouth (a) Div 2, lost 1-2 (Kevin Lewis)
1981: Hull City (a) Div 3, lost 1-2 (Ian Robins)
1987: Grimsby Town (a) Div 2, WON 1-0 (Joey Jones)
1989: Bristol City (a) Div 3, lost 1-6 (Craig Maskell)
1998: West Bromwich Albion (h) Division One (2nd tier), WON 1-0 (Simon Baldry)
2006: Chesterfield (h) League One (3rd tier), lost 1-2 (David Graham)
2009: Walsall (a) League One, WON 3-2 (Andy Booth 2, Martin Kelly)
2014: Brighton (h) Championship, drew 1-1 (Oliver Norwood)
2015: Derby County (h) Championship, drew 4-4 (Oscar Gobern, Mark Hudson, Reece James, Nahki Wells)


Middlesbrough Anagrams: Some football related, some not.

1. Rosemary Peak
   
2. Motor Stack
   
3. Neuroplasm
   
4. Car Hires
   
5. Bigot Sevens
   
6. Trimmer Boob
   
7. Bing Astroblastoma
   
8. Johnny Swoon
   
9. Marcia Shark
   
10. Uni John
    

[ritchiebaby]

Perfect timing again, ritchie.

6 is Bob Mortimer
9 is Chris Kamara

Now to read the article.

[HerefordBull]

1 is Ayresome Park.............................remember going there with the Villa on a damp February 70's day and there wasn't a blade of grass on the pitch.....................wonder what the modern day prima donnas would make of having to play on that. 

oh and 4 is Chris Rea

[ritchiebaby]

4 is Chris Rea and 10 is Juninho and that'll do for me.

Excellent read as usual, Snooty.

Just spotted HB's edit for Chris Rea (Dai's brother)

---

And just spotted Jonny Howson for No 8. How on earth did I miss that first time round?

[Lord Snooty]

Dai's brother.

[jjamez]

I imagine Britt assombalonga is number 7

2 is Matt crooks

5 is Steve gibson

---

3 Paul merson

[Lord Snooty]

Well done, team. I think you've got them all.

[Lord Snooty]

Apparently there will be pay on the day available tomorrow if anybody fancies a late decision to go.

[HerefordBull]

Liked Sol Bamba as a player whilst watching him at Hibs.

Glad he is now cancer free.

[Lord Snooty]

Ward and Colwill injured. Sinani on bench.

In come Rhodes, Sarr and Pipa.