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ALL THOSE YESTERYEARS 6-5-05
The inaugural Middlesbrough Former Player's Association dinner took place on Sunday night at the lavish Tall Trees Hotel near Yarm. And what a wonderful night it was.
For those who are unaware, the MFPA was founded by ex-Boro and England star Alan Peacock who gained the inspiration from attending similar events at Elland Road and White Hart Lane.
Jim Platt and Gordon Jones are also on the board and the Association's main aim is to raise money for charities and to help out former Boro players in need. Before you ask, no they will not be covering Michael Rickett's garage bills.
Unfortunately, Ali Brownlee was unable to host the event, as was planned due to a sudden bout of laringitis. He must have got too excited at Anfield the day before. Gordon Cox stood in and at incredibly short notice, did an absolutely tremendous job.
Former Boro players from six decades were in attendance and the first to be paraded was Johnny Spuhler who had graced the Boro starting line-up when Cloughie was still at junior school.
Several stars from the fifties were hugely applauded including Maurice Emmerson, Billy Day and Arthur Fitzsimmons and players from Jack Charlton's side brought the memories flooding back.
All in all, there were enough former greats in attendance to make up two or three teams of eleven, spanning across the seventies and eighties with noteables such as Gary Pallister and Alan Ramage sitting close by and into the nineties with John Hendrie, Curtis Fleming and Neil Madhouse.
The current team was represented by Colin Cooper who will hopefully not become an ex-player before the end of next season at the earliest.
Private and never seen before footage of magic moments from long gone years was aired on the big screens and the whole audience cheered when various John Hickton and Alan Foggon goals were played back.
Two excellent comedians, Kevin Connelly and Mickey Gunn had the audience in stitches and I would recommend both to anyone with half an ounce of a sense of humour.
Kevin's impressions of football personalities almost lifted the roof and although Mickey's sophisticated dirty humour will probably never get him a spot at the Palladium, the man is surely one of the finest north-eastern entertainers ever.
Despite the entertainment schedule being filled with quality, there was still time aplenty to socialise and every single celebrity was happy to give their time to those who wanted an autograph or wished to offer a word of appreciation.
Tony Mowbray was in huge demand, as you can probably imagine and after I had finished talking with him, I had to check with those around me that he really had said the following. And I quote;
"I'm learning my trade as a manager right now but I'm hoping to continue it with Middlesbrough in the near future."
Make of that what you will...
Franck Queudrue was spotted at the bar and how he got in wearing jeans and a sweatshirt is anybody's guess. More important than that is the theory that if he was not going to stay with us for next season, why would he show so much enthusiasm for the club's former player's association? Believe me, he loves it at Boro and is not going anywhere.
As is usual on an occasion like this, there were notable absentees and their messages of goodwill were screened, to everyone's delight.
Jack Charlton was on his way to a fishing trip in Vancouver. Stuart Boam commented that he must have got it for free, "because he's the tightest man I have ever met in my life..."
It was obvious that Bryan Robson has fond memories of his time on Teesside and Graeme Souness regrettably stated prior commitments as his reason for not being able to attend.
A special thank you must go to Alan, Jim and Gordon for organising this very special evening and massive praise to all the Boro stars of yesteryear who made this a night that will remain in the memory for the next six decades and beyond.
Until next week.
Steve
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