Middlesbrough v Chelsea Online Match Programme || Boro v Chelsea Blast From The Past

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MIDDLESBROUGH v CHELSEA BLAST FROM THE PAST

Confidence draining after a humiliating defeat, people questioning the manager's ability, no one giving us any hope of beating Chelsea at home. Sound familiar? It's amazing how things sometimes come full circle.

History has made Chelsea one of our major rivals, despite them being a London team and a far bigger club than ourselves. It all stems back to the 1988 Play-off Final where both sides were typical yo-yo clubs. And now look at the situation. Some people just get all the roubles.

Four Wembley Cup Final defeats at the hands of Chelsea followed so it's always satisfying to get one over on the World Soccer All Stars. Here are some of your memories against our biggest London rivals.

BoroG
Chelsea 5-0 Middlesbrough, Premier League, 04/02/1996
Chelsea 1-0 Middlesbrough, Premier League, 21/08/1996

1996 saw me visit Stamford Bridge on two different occasions in two separate seasons.

The first Chelsea game of the year I had persuaded a girlfriend to come to the match with me, with the promise that we would go shopping beforehand (I know, I know). It was pissing down, and despite losing 5-0 the Boro fans were in good voice. Even my girlfriend enjoyed it, despite us being sat in front of two of the fattest, stinkiest Boro fans I have ever met. She couldn't have enjoyed it that much mind, considering we split up two weeks later.

By the time of the second visit to Chelsea in August, I was single, living in Manchester and thanks to a new job, pretty loaded. On a whim I jumped on a train for a midweek game, and ended up paying a tout £60 for a seat in the Chelsea end. Ten years later, that seems quite cheap.

Anyway, Ravenelli had turned up by then, and lots of stars were on show. However, it was a pitifully dull game. My over-riding memory was of hundreds of Italian students in the Chelsea end. Boro hung on until the last minute of injury time, when Jody Morris or Dan Pertrescu or some other no-hoper scuffed a daisy-cutter in from twenty-five yards.

I haven't been back to Stamford Bridge since and to be honest, I have no intention of going. It cost me a fortune both times then and it would probably bankrupt me now.

Big Shot
Chelsea 2-0 Middlesbrough, FA Cup Final, 17/05/1997

The FA Cup Final. the flaming FA CUP FINAL!!! Having watched every cup final since I could remember on TV, we had finally made it. The Boro in the FA Cup final, I could hardly believe it!

As tradition always seems to dictate, the weather was beautiful that day. If you want good weather on your wedding day, get married on Cup Final day. Emerging from the tube station and starting to walk up Wembley Way, I was overwhelmed by the colour and the atmosphere of Red and Blue, London and Teesside, North and South. I'd been to Wembley before for England matches but this seemed so much better and so different.

Whilst walking up towards the Twin Towers, I was caught up in the atmosphere and sense of occasion, and allowed myself to get a bit sentimental. I started to think about those Boro fans, like my grandfather, who had supported the Boro for donkey's years in packed Ayresome crowds but who hadn't lived to see anything like this. What wouldn't they have given to have seen this or been here in their lifetimes?

Then, as if the day wasn't special enough already, who did I notice walking not more than half a dozen paces in front of me, but Wilf Mannion. I wasn't the only one to notice him and the chant immediately went up: "ONE WILFY MANNION, THERE'S ONLY ONE WILFY MANNION!".

Dozens were joining in and all the Golden Boy could do was to smile (slightly embarrassedly), raise his hand in acknowledgement and carry on walking. A legend.

Getting into Wembley, I had no inclination to hang around on the concourse even though there was still almost thirty minutes to kick-off - I wanted to be in my seat and soaking up the atmosphere. And I wasn't disappointed - it was special. I've now got to come clean and say that I did have a tear or two in my eye as I sat and surveyed the stadium; I was about to watch the Boro play in the final of the oldest and most famous club competition in the world.

As the clock ticked down, the atmosphere started to build and build and then 'HERE WE GO' the teams came out. The roar of the crowd was incredible!

Now at some point during the start of the royal line-up, I heard a chant start somewhere behind me. I concentrated trying to pick out what it was. Within seconds it had swept throughout all the Boro fans down to my position in the second row.

"THREE POINTS, THREE POINTS, THREE POINTS, THREE POINTS..."

Everyone had joined in, right arms extended signalling the three points to Graham Kelly and his motley crew of old farts. It is one of those moments I will never forget for the rest of my life. The word 'poignant' does not even remotely do it justice.

Then on to the match itself. Well what can you say? I had barely settled down into my seat before Chelsea picked the ball up from an Emerson mistake. Di Matteo advanced and advanced but no one picked him up and then BANG... he smashed it from a full thirty yards straight at Ben Roberts. But Roberts (not being the tallest keeper) couldn't keep it out. The statisticians will tell you that it hit the back of the Boro net fourty-three seconds into the match. I was stunned.

The bloke next to me, showing himself to be a master of the Teesside art of understatement, could only utter the words "Oh God, we could have done without that".

The rest of the match was a blur: Ravanelli limping off after twenty-four minutes, Boro working hard but never really getting back into the match, a moment's hope when Festa scored at the end of the first half (but ruled offside), Juninho getting marked out of the game and then right at the death, getting caught on the break and Newton scoring.

So, that was that then. The dream was over. We weren't going to watch Pearson climb the steps and hoist the trophy in the air after all. Although, as we'd never really been in the match and I'd had pretty much the full ninety minutes to get used to the idea, I wasn't as gutted as I had been about losing to Leicester in the League Cup Final earlier that season.

I stayed to watch the lads collect their medals (Hignett appeared inconsolable) and Chelsea lift the trophy. And then to the tune of "Blue Day" by Suggs (I haven't listened to a Madness record since) I made my way out of the stadium and home.

And now historian-in-residence Harry Haverton takes a look at some famous incidents between the two clubs

For my favourite Chelsea memory I will have to take you right back to Boro's second season in existence. No, not 1878 but 1988. I'm not that old you know.

Boro had gone bust two seasons earlier, landed in the old Third Division, got promoted at the first time of asking and were now in the play-offs for a place in the top flight.

But the play-offs were different back then. It was the nearly teams from the Second Division and the third bottom from the First who contested it, and Boro got into the final against First Division Chelsea.

There were no rich Russians in those days. Or any poor ones for that matter and it didn't cost forty-eight quid to get in either.

We won the first leg 2-0 at Ayresome in a grizzly encounter and had high hopes for the return. It was a rough affair with the tackles flying in hard, blood and guts everywhere and no quarter at all from the officials. And that was just on the tube to the ground.

At the match the atmosphere was hostile, with the aggressive Chelsea crowd antagonising the Boro support and the action on the pitch matching that in the terraces. Boro held on bravely as they lost 1-0 to take the tie 2-1 on aggregate, marking a successful return to the top flight.

But the Chelsea lads weren't through yet. I was all set for leaving the ground as quickly as possible but when the Chelsea fans made a rush for the away end, en masse, it became impossible. So we stood and fought and knocked the crap out of them. Two good wins in one day - what more could you want?

Boro were so good in those days that when Chelsea sacked Tommy Docherty, they came knocking on our door for his replacement. John Neal had taken over from Jack Charlton in 1977 and carried on Big Jack's good work before resigning after four years in charge.

Upon being appointed Chelsea boss, he promptly signed then Boro captain Tony McAndrew but both men made little impact at Chelsea and Neal headed home to Wales. McAndrew meanwhile signed for Boro again but had little left in the tank by this stage.

Another player who played for both clubs was Darren Wood who upon research appears to be a popular choice for the worst Chelsea player of all time amongst the Blues fans.

Guess that's why we sold him then...

CHELSEA FANS WELCOME IN THE NEW HOLGATE MESSAGE BOARD

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