Middlesbrough v Liverpool Match Programme || Boro v Liverpool Blast From The Past

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MIDDLESBROUGH v LIVERPOOL BLAST FROM THE PAST

Liverpool. A club with a great history and a great pedigree. 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.

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.

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, 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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