Boro Mania

It is a little known fact that Paul ‘Gazza’ Gascoigne had the chance of trials with the Boro back in 1980 and he came down to the club with his friend Keith Spraggon, Paul left without taking the trial and Boro offered his friend youth terms.

As the relegation we have suffered slowly sinks in we have to learn to move on and move forward.

Many players are been linked with futures elsewhere as well as a few of the players stating they may see their futures been decided away from the Boro.

Relegation is still proving very difficult to come to terms with, to talk about and above all accept. Time they say is a great healer, but I firmly believe in sport and in particular football you never fully recover from the bad times just as you never forget the good times.

John Hendrie arrived having made Boro his fourth club in four years and had spent spells at our arch rivals Leeds United and Newcastle United. He’d soon be forgiven and would eventually go down in Boro history as a true great.

Think back to January 1995, Robsons’ Red and White army had taken the First Division by storm, but as the sparkling lights of the Premier League gleamed in front of the Ayresome Park faithful, we began the usual stutter towards the finish line.

My personal favourite is Tony ‘Mogga’ Mowbray, such a legend, that the match day fanzine at Middlesbrough is technically in a round about way named after him. I have fondly followed his career until the present day and he will always be a hero to me, a true local great of the game.