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MIDDLESBROUGH v CRYSTAL PALACE BLAST FROM THE PAST 30-11-05
We've crossed paths a number of times over the decades in relegation battles, cup clashes and top of the table encounters alike.
Here's a look back at some matches down the years between Middlesbrough and Crystal Palace.
Retro Barker
Crystal Palace 4-1 Middlesbrough, 12/04/1993
On the back of a defeat against Everton, there was still some optimism in Retro's boots that we could survive relegation from the newly formed Premier League. I was convinced we could turn over our fellow strugglers at Selhurst Park.
What happened then? Well, we got stuffed 4-1, with Wilko banging home our consolation. I was well gutted listening to Ally on the tranny. We were AWFUL! You could really hear the resignation in the usually happy Brownlee.
The result in my eyes confirmed our fate, even though we picked seven points from the final nine in the league. It would have put more pressure on Oldham's "annual" last day heroics. A sad end to a promising start for the Boro.
Lillibet
Crystal Palace 0-1 Middlesbrough, 02/04/2005
I thought that I'd seen more Crystal Palace games than I actually had, until I started to really think about it. I may possibly have been at Ayresome Park over Christmas 1973 but to be honest I was more interested in Crystal Tipps and Allistair then (mmm, psychedelia for kids...) so have no firm memories. I once saw Manchester United v Palace when surreally the Palace mascot was the son of a lifelong Manchester United fan. He had put his cards on the table at a very young age.
I have tried to wipe 92/93 from my memory, but I wasn't there anyway so it wouldn't count. As Palace have a diabolical Premiership record there wasn't a whole lot of opportunities to see the two teams in action but I was definitely at Selhurst Park last season- I remember it well [you're the only one who does!- ed]!
It was one of those legendary ComeOnBoro.com jaunts. There really is nothing like watching the Boro win on a sunny afternoon. There was only the one goal of the match but it was enough and it was a good one from Franck Queudrue - who was temporarily Irish for a week or so. Our injury crisis of last season was so ridiculous that it was almost comedic by that point - how many times did we sub the subs last season?. But everyone in the Boro end was delighted to see the V-Bomber back again.
Until he went off injured after ten minutes or so, with no-one on our row recalling him even touching the ball. Back then we were convinced that we were facing the sad fact that this may be the end of his top-flight career - thank God we were wrong. There was so much optimism in that game- the spring sunshine heralding a late surge after the awful winter days that would ultimately see us back in Europe by a hair's breadth.
Palace fans, like us, have had to put up with a good bit of yo-yoing between divisions and seem to bear it well. You can't question their love for the team in any case. It was a shame that they didn't manage to stay for more than one season in the top flight after the 4th attempt, but I hope that they come back up for a longer stretch soon. But I also hope that their Carling Cup run comes to an end very soon...
Andrew Morgan
Crystal Palace 0-1 Middlesbrough, 02/04/2005
The barrenness! Oh, the barrenness! No I'm not talking about the wilds of South London - although Croydon is a place that only a roundabout enthusiast could realistically shout about - but Boro's record before coming into this game. One league win in three months and sliding down the table faster than a middle-aged businessman who is no longer suited to this new-found 24-hour drinking malarky.
Speaking of which, as I was the first to reach our glamorous rendezvous- the Wetherspoons at Victoria station, with its fabulous views of the 12.37 service to Brighton (calling at Brixton, Herne Hill etc etc)- I committed myself there and then to a session of heavy pre-match drinking.
After all, none of the usual posse had turned up and if I was to be billy no-mates then I'd rather be drunk and have the ability to rant incoherently at all those who passed comment rather than to just ignore them- which is far less fun. I was halfway down my second before anyone else turned up, which only made me further determined to drink as I was a pint and a half ahead of them. What a BIG mistake that turned out to be...
It was a warm sunny April day- one of those spring days that gives you hope of a warm summer ahead before it invariably pisses it down for the next five months. Standing outside a pub near Selhurst I remember talking to a bearded Palace fan in a blue bobble-hat who was resigned to them being relegated, despite them being 17th in the League at that point.
I also remember sitting on some poor bastard's wall whilst we drank bottles of beer and behaved like drunken arses. I think there was an amusing sign somewhere too but I can't remember what it said. The walk to the ground was more of a wavy stumble and we somehow contrived to lose Oort and Wiz along the way, who reappeared in the ground with a pair of moth-eaten pink bunny ears that Wiz said they had 'found on top of a bin'.
Hmm... I decided it would be a good idea to wear them for a bit and pretend to be Ali G. Don't ask why, I still don't know. Then we put them on Wiz and took numerous pictures of the pie-eating bunny rabbit sitting before us.
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Of the game itself I remember next to nothing. Ball came into the box and Queudrue powerfully headed it in at some point during the first half. We went wild and the bunny ears fell off my head, hitting the poor woman in front of me. I put them back on. Later, I think the girl behind me was stroking them gently whilst I was wearing them but that may have just been a wistful dream.
As I say, everything is somewhat sketchy. I remember red and white balloons being battered around the away support which added to the carnival atmosphere that was developing. I also remember some poncing about by a Palace player in the corner near to the away support which served no purpose whatsoever.
And that's about it with respect to the match as apart from that I spent most of the time admiring the sunshine rather than the game. Boro looked like the team they were at that point- one that had not won a league game in six weeks and who had lost their last league outing against Southampton in humiliating fashion. Palace, meanwhile, were plucky but could not penetrate our back-four. Indeed we were pretty comfortable and when the final whistle went the relief around the away support was tangible.
On leaving the stadium I remember speaking some incoherent bollocks and I think Oort and I moved something somewhere but I can't remember what it was or where we moved it to, or where it started from. It may have been sandbags, I just don't know. We still had our bunny ears and three vital away points.
We had stopped the rot although none of us were optimistic enough to predict that we would ride out the rest of the season unbeaten and achieve our target of qualifying for Europe. But then we were so out of it at that point we couldn't care less anyway. As I say, it was one of those days.
Steve Goldby.
Middlesbrough 1-1 Crystal Palace, 25/08/1979
I remember the third game of the 1979/80 season in a big way. Not because of
the match, which turned out to be a bit of a disappointment, but because of the
expectation level.
If you think the expectation is high now, it's nothing compared to what it
was on 25th August 1979 as Boro took to the field sitting pretty on top of
Division One having thrashed Spurs at White Hart Lane 3-1 and turned over
Manchester City 3-0 a few days earlier.
Ayresome Park was absolutely packed. Fuller than I have ever known it and
the atmosphere crackled as title talk filled the air. We should have known
better.
John Neal was threatening to emulate Jack Charlton's achievements and really
had made this Boro team his own- but the team just didn't do the business on
the day. Maybe if it had been Liverpool we were against, we would have enjoyed another three goals?
Palace tried hard to stop us and succeeded where bigger clubs had already
failed in this embryonic season and the crowd left disappointed. Stan Cummins
scored for us after we had fallen behind but Boro fell off the top spot and gathered only one more win in the next five, quashing all talk of titles and even of Europe. We'd have to wait a few more years for that...
And finally, Harry Haverton's unique take on the links between Boro and Palace...
Boro and Palace have two very famous managers in common.
Malcolm Allison made his name as the flamboyant champagne-quaffing, cigar-waving boss of second division Palace when he took them to the FA Cup semi-finals in 1978. The whole episode summed up the romanticism of the competition as a small club with a big personality in the hot seat threatened to go all the way, and nearly did as well.
Big Mal later became boss of Boro and never got to fulfil his potential here as his hands were tied in the transfer market. He was fired in 1982 for refusing to sell his best players.
Terry Venables is the other boss with a common link. On his retirement from playing, he took over the manager's role at Palace whom he coached to two promotions in three seasons, taking them into the First Division in 1979. After a mid-table finish in 1980 he left for Queens Park Rangers but rejoined the South Londoners in 1998 in what would be a disastrous spell that ended acrimoniously.
El Tel joined relegation threatened Boro in 2001 and without making any changes to the squad, took us out of the drop zone and kept us up. He turned down the offer of the manager's job on a permaent basis and instead, the Steve McClaren era began.
Incidentally, current Boro skipper Gareth Southgate started his career with Palace before joining Aston Villa.
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