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BORO v BLACKBURN ROVERS BLAST FROM THE PAST I
Blackburn Rovers. 1995 Premier League champions and Carling Cup 2002 winners. Those trophies were placed in the trophy cabinet alongside five FA Cups that were won won in the (18) eighties and nineties.
Blackburn Rovers and Middlesbrough meet in the Carling Cup quarer-final tonight and in the Premier League on Boxing Day. Two wins would send us on our way to a repeat of Cardiff 2004 and banish our dismal Boxing Day form. It can be done and it should be done.
Middlesbrough Red & White Sox
Middlesbrough 1-1 Blackburn, 26/12/1987
Ahh... to be 15 years old again! Spotty. Bad Hair. Bad Clothes. And raging
hormones...
Standing on the Holgate, the sight of jumpers that had been given the previous
day and the over-powering smell of Brut & Old Spice mixed with lager damaged
me for life.
Five minutes before kick-off I bump into my Uncle Pete, the man who first took me to a
Boro match. He started off this obsession I now have and the financial ruin it has caused!
'Alright Pete man, how are you?'...
'...elllllloooo trouble...whatsssh you doing here?'- (No he didn't have a speech problem- he was pissed. Very pissed.)
'...erm...watching the match.'
'Oh yesssshhh. See you at your nana's later.'
'Okayyyyyy.'
Luckily I found my mates at our usual spot... just to the right of the goal about twenty feet from the front...
The game kicked off and with my memory going I don't remember who scored or what the game was like. I even had to look up that it was a 1-1 draw. But I do remember the atmosphere, a very 'happy' crowd in the Holgate singing louder than normal, I'm sure of it. Or maybe it was just the fact it was the last Christmas game I'd get to go to?
I always look back on the (19) 87-88 season with a great fondness. It was the first season I got to go to all the home games and a few away. We had a great team, played some cracking football and finished up back in the first division.
And at the end of the season I moved away, down here to Hampshire, never again to be a Boro regular, making do with 'away' trips to Portsmouth, Southampton, Bournemouth and London, cursing Radio 5 Live for never covering the Boro games and wishing Teletext would update quicker.
So all you Boro fans who turn up at the Riverside every game, take a good look round the stadium at the fans, at the pitch and at the players and cheer them on. Some of us would love to be there every week singing our hearts out for the lads. Count yourselves lucky!
Merry Christmas and ......COME ON BORO!!!
Andrew Morgan
Middlesbrough 2-1 Blackburn, 17/10/1998
The 1998-99 season. In the previous campaign we had secured promotion and were thus playing top-flight football once more. We had also just filled the corners in, which is why I managed to obtain a season ticket for the one and only time in my life earlier that year. Unfortunately most of the game I saw were too dull to remember, particularly the succession of exciting 0-0 home draws that heralded the start of 1999. However the Blackburn game is one that I can recall, although it has more to do with desperately wanting the game to finish than for any footballing reasons. But then I can't really be blamed for that- after all, we did have Hamilton Ricard playing for us at this point in our history.
It was a cold, grey October day. It had rained consistently over the previous few days and we all felt a little relieved that it had abated on the Saturday. The roads however were still flooded, particularly those around the railway line where the delightful HS 'look for the smiley house logo' Interiors is. McDonald's sits near there now but in 1998 it was a car park. I still think that they ruined it with that 'development' and I will write to the local planning authority to complain.
The banter on the way to the match was quite muted, as it tends to be on cold autumn days when the Boro fans gag themselves with their 'Coca Cola Cup 1997' scarves. I, meanwhile, was just minding my own business walking to the ground when a courteous white van driver decided to speed past me and flick ten gallons of standing water in my direction.
Standing water that hit the entire left side of my body, making my jeans and Boro shirt wet through. Or at least my jeans wet through, as the water skimmed down my Boro shirt (which had god knows what in its material make-up), thus adding to the saturation of my trousers. I shouted some obscenities at the driver who just ignored me, and I walked to the stadium soaked to the bone.
As anyone who has ever had the misfortune to wear soaked jeans knows, they don't exactly take well to water, or do they dry that easily. They cling to the skin like lycra on a Romanian gymnast's backside. Add to this that the temperature that afternoon was approaching freezing and you can imagine the discomfort I was in as I sat and watched the match. My left leg was involuntarily shivering all game, which must have perturbed the poor sod behind me who must have wondered how I had the youthful ability to sustain a two hour wank, never mind the audacity to do it in the middle of a populated football stadium. For that and to that fan, I sincerely apologise.
So what could make matters worse than this? That's right- Blackburn scoring first- and pretty early on. And I was sat right next to the Blackburn fans. Great- their celebrations only managed to piss me off more. I remember having the desire to peel my soaking trousers off my body and hit them across the face of the nearest opposition fan but I thought that would only disturb my friend behind me even more. Plus I doubt the stewards would have taken to it too well either so I decided against it.
As the half progressed, the football that was being played was no better than mediocre- indeed it was the same mediocre shite that characterised most of the football we played under Robson. Meanwhile I was still sitting there desperately wishing I could go home. Maybe I was a wuss, but then I was only fifteen. Half-time came and I dived in to the concourses to get some warmth, only for the crowds to push past me and make my jeans stick even more tightly to my poor suffering left leg. I'd almost had enough but I decided to return for the second half- after all I had paid for this mediocrity and I was determined to see it through, suffering or not.
The rest of the game was equally as pedestrian, although we did start to come into it more as it wore on. Yet by the 75th minute we still hadn't scored and things were starting to get desperate, so when Ricard broke through the Blackburn defence to score we were all more than relieved. We were back in business.
A genuine hope lifted the crowd and I started to forget about the water retention problem that was affecting the lower half of my body. I willed the team on to further success, along with the rest of the fans who had become rather more vocal under the restriction of their scarves.
Ball came in, Fleming, GOAL! 2-1 in the 87th minute or something. GET IN!!! Suddenly all the suffering was worth it as Fleming celebrated directly in front of us and I smiled for the first time that day. Finally I was buzzing. Uncomfortable still, but buzzing. As the final whistle blew and we applauded for an extended amount of time I felt that it was a result that both I and we deserved. Furthermore my feelings of bitterness towards that driver had finally abated under the warming glow of victory.
Still, I hope the bastard got clamped or something the next day. It would serve him right for the two hours of torture I had just endured. And no I wasn't talking about the Boro's display. For once.
And finally Harry Haverton reminisces over a Carling Cup fixture between Blackburn and the Boro.
Harry Haverton
Blackburn 2-1 Middlesbrough (aet), 10/10/2001
The League Cup, the Rumbelows Cup, the Littlewoods Cup, the Milk Cup, the Coca-Cola Cup... Whatever you want to call it, the often maligned competition has provided some class moments for Boro fans and a few downers along the way as well.
We have only played Blackburn once before in this competition and that was a third round tie in the 2001-02 season, Steve McClaren's first as manager.
We had drawn Northampton at home in round two and cruised to an easy 3-1 win with goals from David Murphy, Lizard Nemeth and forgotten man Mark Wilson.
David Murphy was making his debut that night and out of his grand total of 14 appearances for us, this was his only scoring game.
On to round three and Blackburn away. The Lancastrians had just bounced back into the Premier League after a couple of seasons in the wilderness and were playing with all the airs and confidence that a newly promoted team usually has just after promotion.
And not only did they knock us out of the competition that night, they actually went on to win it that year, beating Spurs 2-1 in the final.
Our old mate Graeme Souness was Blackburn manager then and Lizard Nemeth got our consolation goal.
We didn't know it at the time but we wouldn't have to wait too much longer for our own piece of League Cup glory. And of course, we made up for the disappointment by making it to the FA Cup semi-final that season.
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