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LIVERPOOL v BORO BLAST FROM THE PAST
Liverpool. A club with a great history, a great pedigree and Roy Evans. Five times European Cup winners, a team that dominated the league in the Eighties and a reputation that is second-to-none within footballing circles.
Yet they also have Peter Crouch in their ranks- strange, huh? Still, for passion, drive and commitment, it is hard to fault the fans of the red half of Merseyside and this has led to many a good atmosphere in fixtures between us and them. It has also led to many memorable matches between the two sides as well. Here are just a few of them.
Bob End
Liverpool 2-0 Middlesbrough, 19/03/1976
The day started off brilliantly as a 1970's situation developed at the motorway services, with Sunderland fans off somewhere else, and Manchester City (I think) doing likewise. Roaming nutters with fence posts etc- a normal situation for the decade. The Beggs bus driver decided he wasn't going any further, silly arse, but was persuaded otherwise.
Fast forward to Anfield and the first time I'd seen the Kop, or rather not much of it, because it was a misty day with a low sun if I remember rightly. What I do remember is that it was packed out. My dad always told me to stand in front of crush barriers, blah, blah, blah. What bull dad- they are to lean on in the Holgate corners. Far more danger from the flimsy Oxo cups with nuclear heated liquid in them.
Different bloody story in a 52,000 crowd at Anfield. Older readers will remember seeing the Kop spill forward after a near-miss or whatever; the other end worked the same. Big boys at the back playing games were giving a concerted shove into the crowd, which resulted in a huge wave flying down the terrace. We were stood leaning on the barrier as the dense crowd gathered around us and I can tell you that I thought I was going to die in the pushing. I couldn't get shifted from the half million fat Boro boys hurtling into my back, with the bar of the barrier across my belly.
In the end we got free and learned to ride the wave. Not hard, just take both feet off the ground as it hits you & fly! Grand day.
Boro got beat, as expected. Callaghan & someone else [Keegan, I think- ed]. The Kop, all 23,000 of them (a Boro crowd in one end, smart-arses) sang 'You'll Never Walk.' etc. What a flaming sight that was!
James Bassett
Liverpool 1-1 Middlesbrough, 08/02/2003
Fabrizio Ravanelli and Juninho, Alan Peacock and Brian Clough, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Mark Viduka. Boro have had some excellent striking partnerships down the years but there's one which will surely go down in Boro folklore, albeit for the wrong reasons. Michael Ricketts and Malcolm Christie.
A surprisingly proactive Steve McClaren had just snared Malcolm Christie and Chris Riggott from Derby for £5million and, with just seconds left, the Boro boss somehow managed to squeeze the portly Michael Ricketts through the January transfer window. With Massimo Maccarone fading after a bright start, Boro were in desperate need of goals. We had beaten Manchester United 3-1 on Boxing Day, but then lost to Aston Villa, Blackburn, Chelsea, Fulham and Villa again (a 5-2 thrashing at La Riv).
A 2-2 draw at home against Southampton was the only point Boro secured in January. What's more, those two goals were the only two we had managed. Yes, it was a typically lean holiday period for Boro.
Steve McClaren's response was to line his team up against a Liverpool side who hadn't won a Premiership game at home in six attempts in a 5-3-2 formation with Robbie Stockdale and kebab-loving booze-hound David Murphy playing at full back with the youthful pairing of Gareth Southgate and Colin Cooper partnering Chris Riggott in the centre of defence.
Geremi, George Boateng and Jonathan Greening played in midfield and the mouth-watering partnership of Ricketts and Joseph Job began the game up front. McClaren's opposite number, Gerard Houllier, missed the game through gastro-enteritis. Fitting since his team had been dumped out of the FA Cup by Crystal Palace just three days earlier.
Despite his ludicrous team selection, McClaren's side took the lead just before half time. Sami Hyypia hacked Jonathan Greening down as the Jesus-lookalike wandered around aimlessly just outside the Liverpool 18-yard box. Geremi curled a wonderful free-kick over the wall and past the leaping Jerzy Dudek. It was Boro's first away goal in thirteen hours of football. The goal shook Liverpool from their slumber and they had good chances to equalise from John Arne Riise, Michael Owen and El-Hadji Diouf. But this was a time before Liverpool could rely on Peter Crouch to get them out of jail and Mark Schwarzer was equal to everything the Reds threw at him.
McClaren decided to up the ante at half time and brought on Malcolm Christie in place of Joseph Job. With about fifteen minutes left to play, John Arne Riise grabbed an equaliser for Liverpool. Ricketts had a decent shout for a penalty turned down and Christie, of course, picked up a knock and had to come off in the 87th minute. He was replaced by Boro legend John Eustace.
The dream team of Christie and Ricketts had managed a grand total of zero attempts on goal. In fact, both of them were upstaged the following week, when a brace from Chris Riggott secured Boro a 3-1 victory over Sunderland. Christie got the third in that game, but it would take Ricketts nine games to find the net. Probably too busy eating parmos and crashing his Ferrari or something.
Luke Smogwalker
Liverpool 1-1 Middlesbrough, 08/02/2003
What a Screamer!
To make this story complete I need to take you back to the December of 2002, well Christmas to be exact! My girlfriend at the time (to protect identities, lets call her 'Mrs C') had decided that my combined Christmas & birthday presents that year would be tickets for me and her to see the mighty Boro play Liverpool at Anfield on my birthday, and for us to spend the rest of the weekend exploring the delights of an equally expensive hotel room.
What also might embellish the story even further is that this would be the very first time she had ever been inside a football ground. A virgin, you may say. Anyway, I digress.
Mrs C had decided before talking to anyone with any rationale that she was going to buy the tickets from Ticket Master. Great idea love! £135 EACH! Who's paying? You? That's fine; go ahead!
To cut a long story short, she ended up asking my dad to get the tickets from the Riverside- say what you like about women & football. But. oh yeah, by the way, this is the same woman who upon finding out that England were playing at the Riverside, and therefore there was an opportunity to see David Beckham (even though he was banned) and David James in the flesh, wanted a ticket. Foolishly I thought, she hates football. Oh boy was I wrong. The moral of the story is you can never know what goes on in a woman's mind- accept it and move on.
Where were we... oh yes. A weekend in Liverpool, in February. What joy! At least we only managed four arguments on the journey over the M62 and three of those were because she was driving. We arrived in Liverpool late on the Friday night, found the hotel, dumped our bags, and then decided it would be a great idea to get pissed! Where are the pubs from here then love? I dunno! Been to Liverpool before haven't you? Yes, came the reply! Ok then, I'll go ask!
MATCHDAY - Saturday 8th Feb 2003 - My 28th Birthday.
After a pretty heavy night drinking (that's drinking!), I woke up with the largest.. hangover in Liverpool. Go on!- you thought I was going to say something else there, didn't you? Dirty Bastards!
Now my normal pre-match build up used to consist of one or two drinks in the Corner House, stumble outside, then find a taxi to take us to the Riverside, so me thinks, we'll find a decent pub near Anfield, full of Boro fans, few beers etc etc etc. Oh no, she had other ideas- SHOPPING!
SHOPPING on a Saturday morning, FFS (bear in mind this is before the days of regular Sunday kick-offs!). Not having a choice in the matter, I reluctantly give in. At this point I have to say that this was the best decision I had ever made- Liverpool has a fucking great Ann Summers shop- I'll 'come' back to this later.
We managed to finish our 'shopping' trip in time to get a taxi from the city centre, up to Anfield to soak up the pre-match atmosphere.
Of course the usual 'away' fans banter was there, bumping into people I hadn't seen for years, fantastic crack. We went to find our seats, and found we had an absolutely fantastic view, about nine rows back, just to the right of the goal. As time went on, the stadium progressively filled up and my thoughts returned to the recently purchased Ann Summer's items, one of which had managed to find its way un-noticed into the stadium.
With the mightily impressive Kop end now crammed full of over-excited Scousers, and some vibrating items nestled snugly in my girlfriend's (cough!), we patiently waited as the teams came out. There was the most intimidating roar from all around the stadium, would we score a goal, scrape a draw? The tension was building. Would the batteries last 90 minutes?
Having heard so much about Anfield's legendary atmosphere, I was incredibly disappointed because as soon as the action got going the place was like a morgue. What happened to the legend that used to be the Kop, God only knows! The batteries didn't last too much longer either, much to my girlfriends dismay.
From what I can remember, the match was an open, end-to-end, affair, with the most memorable footballing event, from a Boro perspective, being Geremi's free kick. It was at our end (the Anfield Road End) with us having the most fantastic view. What a screamer!- but more about the missus later.
As soon as the final whistle went, we were off. What a nightmare of a trip back from Anfield to the city centre. It took us just over an hour, with a combination of taxis, rides and walking- what a relief to finally walk back into our hotel room.
Reflecting back on what was a fantastic result, I could now cross Anfield off my list of visited grounds. Needless to say the rest of the weekend lived up to expectations- unlike Anfield.
I guess we suffer the same narcolepsy at the Riverside; all-seater stadiums will never have the same atmosphere as the Holgate used to generate, or indeed the Anfield Kop. A similar result this weekend however would make me a happie chappie indeed.
Andrew Morgan
Liverpool 1-1 Middlesbrough, 30/04/2005
My one and only visit to the red half of Liverpool was at the close of last season, when European qualification was the top priority and where the last few games would decide whether the season would be a success or not. After our dismal opening to 2005, April had been one of much profit, with us battling our way back into contention for the final European spot up for grabs. Coming into the game, we only had one unlucky defeat in five behind us and although we were playing like shit, the Boro fans around the stadium were quietly confident of getting something against a team of similar ability.
Grabbing a pie from a scruffy shop on Anfield Road, Steve and I got down to our major business of the day - flyering this website - before being told by a harsh cop that there was a bye-law in Liverpool against such things. So we did what every law-abiding citizen would do under such circumstances and continued flyering.
We also bumped into Ali and Bernie outside the main entrance to Anfield and I proceeded to bore poor Bernie with my expert analysis. He was actually quite receptive to what I was saying, which gave me some relief with respect to my intermittent columns for this site. We mooched about a bit more, bumped into the bearded guy who looks a bit like Mark Viduka and who ITV always focus on when they cover one of our European matches, and then entered the stadium with a strong hope that today would be the day we would break our Anfield hoodoo.
Anfield is an impressive stadium. But not as impressive as thirty thousand Scousers singing 'You'll Never Walk Alone' in unison- an experience that left me with goose-bumps for most of the first half. The stewards we were sat next to were not arseholes either, a rarity in Premier League grounds these days and one that made the match all that more enjoyable. Indeed they were so accommodating, chatting to us before the game and allowing us to support the team as vociferously and as actively as we wanted, that I must take this opportunity to commend them. They are the best I have come across in the League by far.
As for the match itself, well what a start! The Lizard pops up after four minutes with a cool finish and we were 1-0 up. We were hopeful before the match but even we didn't expect that! And for the rest of the half we contained Liverpool with ease. They had a few shots but nothing all that threatening and, although we didn't really test the keeper, we had a few decent attacks of our own. Indeed I remember watching the team with pride throughout that half- we were holding our own against one of the better teams in the League and it felt like miles away from our performances in January and February. We were so assured and you could tell that the players' confidence had returned in recent weeks.
We never really looked like losing and it was only a wonder-goal by Steven Gerard that beat us. I still feel privileged to have watched that strike, even though it was scored against us, as it was something special. Almost at the half-way line, centre-right and Gerard just hit it. Schwarzer had no chance and it was impossible to defend against. You just had to take your hat off and salute such a fantastic goal. And we did- even the Boro fans applauded such audacity and skill.
But apart from that, despite increased Liverpool pressure, we still didn't look like conceding and as the full-time whistle blew, I thought a 1-1 draw was a fair result. It was also a result that nudged us that step closer to the European dream we craved as our destiny was now in our own hands. On the way out of the stadium and into the Scouse sunshine we did some more flyering and life felt good. We were almost there. If only we could beat Spurs the following week...
And now the focus switches to the Riverside for a memorable home game from yesteryear...
Lillibet
Middlesbrough 1-0 Liverpool, 21/08/1999
What promise that afternoon held. After this 1-0 victory, we were 3rd and Liverpool 17th- enough to make the memory of our opening day defeat at the hands (feet) of Dean Windass fade right away. I think the sun was shining. The sun was very much in the news around that time having just been eclipsed by the moon for the first time in this country for, ooh, ages really.
It was all about new dawns and new starts and new eras, along with the fear that some made-up computer bug would wipe us all off the face of the earth. A couple of weeks previously the local paper had printed the funniest obituary notice ever, with the words "so glad to have missed both the eclipse and the millennium" after the deceased's name.
So this could have been it- the dawn of New Boro. Three goals scored away from home on both occasions against Wimbledon and Derby and now Liverpool's scalp too. Then what happened? Oh yes, back to form, another mediocre season and a 12th place finish. But at least we weren't mistaken with the idea of the advent of New Boro, which was just a bit premature.
Where was I for that Liverpool match? At a ruddy wedding with no transistor radio.
And finally Harry Haverton looks at the many links between the Boro and the red half of Merseyside over the years.
A few players have made the switch between Boro and Liverpool down the years, some successfully, some not so.
In the 70's it seemed almost habitual for Boro's best players to go to Anfield and the list includes Graeme Souness who captained the Scousers to a European Cup win and hundreds of other trophies before taking the club down a notch or two in his spell as manager.
David Hodgson, now manager of Darlington followed Souey soon afterwards and enjoyed a distinguished Anfield career alongside Craig Johnson, who never managed a north-east club. Johnson quit football early and invoked much angst among the Anfield Roaders for that decision. He now runs a successful sportswear company in his native Australia.
Still in the 70's, Phil Boersma was one of Jack Charlton's only cash signings but he was all washed up by the time he arrived at Ayresome.
More recently, Christain Ziege left Boro for Liverpool in acrimonious circumstances and his name still invokes much anger on Teesside. And then there was Bolo Zenden who gave up his revered status on Teesside for a place on the Liverpool bench.
But the biggest memory of Boro Liverpool times gone by involves something that would probably have altered the course of the planet, had it happened.
In 1959, Huddersfield had a Scottish manager called Bill Shankly who you may or may not have heard of. Both the Liverpool and Middlesbrough jobs were vacant at the time and Shankly was interviewed for both. The story goes that we turned him down because it was felt that he wouldn't get on with the directors. The rest, as they say, is history. They went on to dominate English and European football and we finally qualified for Europe 45 years later.
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