Boro v Charlton Athletic
Wednesday 11 March @ 19.45
There’s another big game on Wednesday. But first, a big game from Boro’s history:
On 22 October 1960, Boro famously drew 6-6 away at Charlton in the then Division 2. Are there any of you who can actually recall this high-scoring game? Not me. I was only 7 at the time. But it’s gone down in Boro folklore as one of the most infamous in our history. Anthony Vickers writes about it in his excellent ‘ The Games That Shaped the Boro.’
It was an era when we scored lots of goals virtually every season, with Brian Clough and Alan Peacock banging them in for fun. But we also conceded far too many, which meant that we missed out on promotion from division 2 several seasons on the trot. On this particular day, Clough, having scored a hat-trick, smelled a rat, and was incandescent. He berated his defender teammates on the coach home then approached the club hierarchy with his suspicions (but to no avail), before finally accusing his team-mates in a team meeting. Unfortunately, the club decided to sell him to Sunland at the end of that season, having previously turned down several of his transfer requests, though whether that decision and Our Brian’s outburst were connected is not known. I rather suspect I know the answer to that one.
But Clough was right, to an extent at least. AV writes: ‘Within two years of the Charlton clash 3 former members of Boro’s squad were to be named and shamed in a sensational tabloid exposé, deeply enmeshed in Britain’s biggest ever match-fixing scandal. Two of them, long-time Ayresome first-team fixtures, Ken Thompson and Brian Phillips, would be jailed for their leading roles in a shadowy national syndicate with poisonous tentacles tainting every division. The other, second-string keeper, Esmond Million, was to flee the country for Canada in shame.’ They had been betting against Boro, as had others against their own clubs, including Sheffield Wednesday’s England pair, Peter Swan and Tony Kay. Only Thompson played that day at Charlton, and Cliff Mitchell’s match report - included in AV’s book - highlights the heavy rain and greasy conditions which made it difficult for defenders, so we can’t say if this was in fact one of the games that were thrown.
And so to Wednesday. I wonder what odds you would get this time for gambling on anything more than 4 goals in this game? It would be nice to see Boro score another 4, but I can’t see that happening really.
Charlton gave us a hard game at The Valley earlier in the season. Boro were comfortably 2-0 ahead at the break, but a spirited Charlton fightback in the second half saw us clinging on a bit. We ended up winning 2-1, but it was a bit nervy. They gave us a bit of a fright in truth.
At the start of the season Charlton were probably on most people’s list of sides most likely to go down, following their playoff victory last year. They finished fourth, then beat Leyton Orient in the final. However, they have generally performed better than most people’s expectations and seem to be holding their own in the lower reaches of the Championship.
Currently in 18th place, they don’t seem to be in any imminent danger of going down, as they are now 9 points clear of 22nd place, a very solid achievement for a club with a limited budget on its return to the higher division. Though manager Nathan Jones says they’re not clear yet, so they’ll be aiming to pick up at least a point at The Riverside.
They’ve won 3 and drawn 7 of their 18 away games. They’d won only one of their last 6 games home and away before beating Birmingham 1-0 at The Valley on Saturday in a game of few chances. In their previous home game, a 1-0 loss to Wrexham, Charlton had been the dominant side and had missed a hatful of good opportunities. Now where have I heard that before…….?
Only Oxford and Wednesday have scored fewer than their 34 goals. Nonetheless, they have some dangerous players, such as forwards Tyrece Campbell and Scottish international Lyndon Dykes, and former England, Wolves and Everton defender, Conor Coady ( on loan from Wrexham), who is apparently currently playing in a defensive midfield role. Top scorer is Sonny Carey with 8 goals. They have a goalkeeper called Will Mannion: no relation, I presume?
For Boro, this is a very important game. We failed to win either of our last two home games, of course, which allowed clubs below us to close the gap. Happily, we put it right in the two away games since. But again, we’re playing later than our close rivals. All 3 of Millwall (home to Derby), Ipswich (away at Stoke) and Hull (away at Wrexham) play Tuesday, so while all 3 could drop points in some tough games, equally the gap could yet again be down to one point by Wednesday. The Championship is relentless, as we know, and this year is incredibly tight, tighter and more congested than I can remember in some time. We can’t go on relying on winning away from home, even with our fantastic record, so that might mean we’ll have to make the very most of our 6 home games to keep ahead of the chasing pack.
Nor must we approach what might appear an easier game on paper with any kind of complacency. The wily and experienced Nathan Jones will no doubt have his side well prepared. On the QPR thread Boro Becky’s Dad wrote :
‘KH’s selection and formation will, as always be the key. Looks like Charlton play with 3 at the back with 5 in midfield so we will have to find a way through that.’ I wasn’t aware of that, but I would be very surprised if they come out to attack us, so I think we’ll face the challenge of a low block yet again. If they do opt for a defensive wall, can we get round it, through it or behind it to create good scoring chances? Can we put one or two of them away?
Harsh though it would be to rest Alan Browne for this one after his excellent game at QPR, I might be tempted to do so if that allows us to play both Conway and Strelec, with the option later on of bringing on Castledine if necessary. I think we’ll need the extra forward. I’m not convinced we’ll need the extra midfielder.
It was a stellar performance at QPR, where our first clean sheet for ages in away games, and of course the four goals, were a real tonic. I hope it made you feel a bit brighter Bob, and that it’s lifted your spirits a bit? It certainly did mine. Charlton starts a run of 6 games of which 5 are eminently winnable, while the other is Millwall, but that’s at home and must give us a chance. And we have 6 remaining home games against just 4 away, though two of those are six-pointers at Ipswich and Wrexham.
In principle Boro should win this one. If we score one goal we’ll probably win, I think, especially if we score first! As I’m sure you know, we’ve won all 18 of the games in which we’ve scored first this season, which is simply incredible. But all usual caveats apply: in the Championship normal form rules don’t apply! And even though I’d like to see Boro score another four scintillating goals, or especially six, I’d settle for a relatively boring 1-0 win!
Thanks Clive for a very interesting opener.
Come on BORO.
As a matter of interest, Boro have this season 16 different scorers:
Morgan Whittaker 11
Tommy Conway 8
Hayden Hackney 6
Riley McGree 5
David Strelec 5
Alan Browne 4
Matt Targett 4
Four players on 2
Five players on 1
Come on BORO.
Thanks Clive for that interesting opener and mention in dispatches! - I was only 4 months old for the 6 6 game although I am sure my late Dad would have remembered it.
I have been to the Valley a couple of times - iirc it was once one of the biggest grounds by virtue of its open banking.
As I mentioned, I will be at the game along with daughter and son and whilst I dont expect 4 goals again, I am sure that KH will have worked out a way to get behind their low block or as us oldies call it, parking the bus strategy.
As we have seen, if we score first then chances are we win so it is important to get that first goal and at this stage in the season, I don’t care how that is achieved! An ugly win is preferable to a pretty loss now.
Given that Charltons nickname of The Addicks is thought to be a Sarf London pronunciation of haddock, I will go for Boro to batter them 2 0!
Thanks for the stats - hadn’t realised that our goal scorers were that well spread which is actually no bad thing - shows that we are not reliant on one person having a bd run.
Would still like to see TC score a few more though!
Thanks Clive for reminding us of the 6-6 at the Valley. I too was only seven at the time but I remember later discussing it with my two much older brothers and they used to say that it was always a question of knowing what bets were in place to know how matches would go. I feel that was maybe post-rationalisation but who knows.
Talking of Charlton, I do remember going to the Valley from the late 1960s after we had moved to London. It was like a giant opencast mine dug out of the earth and turned into a football ground.
Am I the only one who thinks that this season has gone by at a lightning speed. Are there really only ten games to go?
UTB
we were probably there at the same matches! We were also in the London area in the late 60s when my Dad first introduced me to being a Boro supporter!
‘Given that Charltons nickname of The Addicks is thought to be a Sarf London pronunciation of haddock, I will go for Boro to batter them 2 0!’
Cod willing……..
Thanks for the intro Clive. Another intriguing encounter at the Riverside with a team that will probably come looking for a point. They have the highest rated defender in the Championship in Lloyd Jones ,according to Whoscored.com. His rating is 7.31. In context Dael Fry is 6.96, and Luke Ayling 6.93. The referee is Adam Herczeg who refereed our away games at Leicester and Stoke this season, and in both those games there was red card.
Some of the BBC stats
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Middlesbrough have lost just one of their past 13 league games against Charlton (W10 D2), winning the past three in a row.
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Charlton have won just one of their past 17 away league games against Middlesbrough (D6 L10), and are winless in six visits since a 3-0 win in August 2005.
It is worth noting they are the only away team to win at Ipswich this season and with a 3-0 scoreline.
ah yes, the 3 0 defeat by Charlton in 2005………… I remember it all too well sadly! I was far from a happy bunny that day.
Great stuff, Clive - much appreciated.
@clive-hurren great opening piece, thank you. I was only 16 months old when that infamous scoreline occurred, so have no actual memory, just ( as you observed ) the folkloric memory we all have. How different a history we might have had if none of that scandal had occured.
Having taken yesterday off work to spend a last day with the visiting family, today has a very Monday feel about it for me, yet there are so many games of interest tonight and our Wednesday night game will feel just like a tradtional Tuesday night Boro game. I think we have to believe our Manager of the Month wobble is now past and we should continue our improved form against Charlton. Conway and Strelec both to start for me. I think Whitaker is the one to take a seat on the bench. Assuming Dael Fry will not be fit, then Malanda is surely going to start. Othewise unchanged as we take to the field too strong for the Haddocks to contain.
Looking for a positive result to lift OFB's spirit ahead of his visit to the Freeman on Thursday.
CoB
Many thanks Clive for that introduction to Wednesday's big game and astute analysis of the potential options that Hellberg must ponder ahead of the game - I'd agree that attacking options may be required over any defensive concerns. Pace in the wide positions may well be needed given the low block and maybe starting with Sarmiento and possibly Munroe with Targett getting a rest.
Also an interesting reminder at that infamous 6-6 at the Valley - crazy scoreline but just looking into the game I discovered Charlton actually won 5-3 at Brighton the previous game - Indeed they scored 97 goals that season and conceded 91 in 42 games, which was an amazing 188 goals involving their games. Incidentally, during that 6-6, seven goals were scored over 16 minutes in the first half as it ended 4-4 at the break - hard to imagine how that was even possible!
Not sure how many goals we'll get on Wednesday but Charlton have only scored 16 away from home from 18 games. Boro have actually scored 6 goals fewer at home than they have away (26 vs 32) - which probably reflects that teams come to defend at the Riverside.
Thanks Clive for a very interesting and enjoyable opener; I was eight in 1960 and can’t remember that 6-6 score being discussed at home.
I was working in London from the early 70s and visited the valley on a few occasions but can’t remember when or the scores; it was certainly during Jack’s time so I imagine it was a win.
I am with PNM, TC to start and MW on the bench, that apart the same team as Monday with Malander starting as I suspect Fry will not be risked.
Another match requiring patience I suspect whilst the team try to find a way through or around the bus; it would be nice if we could score early to ease the nerves and lower the blood pressure!
For me, a win, any win will do. 😎
A fantastic starter Clive. I was 5 in 1960, but my Dad wasn’t really into football, although I do recall him taking me to a night match whilst we still lived in Norwich Road. We moved to Nunthorpe in 1962 so I was still quite young - I’ve no idea why we went on that occasion, maybe it was a match of particular importance.
It would be good if some of our rivals could drop points tonight, but in any event, we need to win tomorrow - I’m with others who think we’ll need a more attacking line up and would welcome TC starting to try and pull their defence out left to create some space.
Any win will do.
A great starter Clive, thank you. I remember 6 - 6 draw and my father fuming about it, we sometimes went to Hillsborough and I have "Bronco Lane's, autograph somewhere, in a box, in the loft, one day I'll have another dig out up there! I was fourteen at the time but now clear memories but I do remember my mother telling father to calm down before he 'did himself an injury'.
The game v Charlton please win Boro, I'll be in the shed, no phone and lights out. I hope I don't 'do myself an injury'.
All the best OFB and keep on improving.
ATB and UTB,
John
Clive Hurren has scored a hat trick with his Match Preview. An enjoyable read. I enjoy this Blog so much!
I think if I'd been scoring 44 goals a season at one end, and I thought some people in the defence in my own team were taking money to affect the result of the game, I'd be more than merely annoyed. Clough was proved correct as the subsequent findings and criminal cases proved. I guess if Clough had already scored in the game, and you were recieving money to influence the game against your team, you'd make sure never to pass to Clough if he was in a good attacking position!
Hopefully some of the teams chasing Boro will drop points in their games this evening (Tuesday) before Boro plays Charlton on Wednesday. Whether or not that happens, Boro's fate remains firmly within Boro's own grasp. As has been said before, a win, any win, is what we need.
@malcolm An interesting comment in that article - KH talked about rotating the squad and included specific reference to the relationship between players.
I’d not thought of that element before - Player X is improved by having Player Y in the team, so resting Y has a detrimental affect, even if his replacement is individually just as talented. Who’d be a Manager, eh?
@martin-bellamy Just goes to show how much thought, KH and his team put into tactics and team selection that maybe other managers don’t, certainly supporters don’t.
Come on BORO.
MEMORIES
I remember the 6-6 draw with Charlton all those years ago. It was in an era when Boro scored loads of goals but conceded lots. It might have been the year Boro won their first game of the season 9-0 v Brighton and I think the away game 6-4.
Teams were all set up the same way with the full backs letting their opposing winger “know they were there” asap, the centre half standing no nonsense, the midfield had defensive midfielders and attacking midfielders. One of my favourite defensive midfielders was Ray Yeoman ( formerly a butcher?) whose job was to tackle,win the ball, run forward and pass it to his winger even when on the edge of the penalty area and the crowd urging him to shoot. The winger’s job ( Eddie Holliday and others) was to beat the full back and cross the ball for the centre forward- Brian Clough in my time - to score.
I also remember going to Reserve team games at Ayresome Park and standing where the latest scores were displayed. I was close enough to hear the telephone ring and awaiting the change to the Boro score - had they scored or was it the opposition?
Football is now unrecognisable to those days. Players are certainly fitter, better coached, earn mega money, but don’t have the same loyalty. It’s just different.
Back to the important game tomorrow. 3 points are needed irrespective of tonight’s results. At this stage of the season the teams who get promoted go on a run of winning games with very few slip ups.
I don’t expect many changes - Malanda for Fry, hope Conway starts with Strelec whilst Sermiento still hasn’t done enough to start the game.
Philip of Huddersfield
👍🤔👍
@philip-of-huddersfield Do you remember the state of a lot of the pitches though? Maine Road used to be like a ploughed field! Not conducive to cultured football at all.
@martin-bellamy not to mention the Baseball Ground ... always a mud bath
There was often more sand there than on Redcar beach!
If Charlton stick to what appears to be their favoured set up of a packed midfield, we are going to need TC to try and pull players out of position so that HH and Riley McGree can find ways through the middle with their silky skills! I also would like to see Whitaker start with Strelec as a front 3.
Midfield of HH, McGree and Browne and a back 4 of Ayling, Malandra Britain and Targett. Think that adds up to 10!!
On your reminisces of days gone by, how many red cards would the likes of Souness, Hunter and Harris get a season under today’s refs!?
Thanks to Clive for his opener - and thanks to ExMil for his stats!
I'll follow up on ExMil's post by listing our league goalscorers for this season in total - I've kept a record of Boro goalscorers for nearly three decades.
Whittaker 11
Conway 8
Hackney 5
McGree 5
Strelec 5
A. Browne 4
Targett 4
Own Goals 3
Burgzorg 2
Fry 2
Sène 2
Silvera 2
Ayling 1
Azaz 1
Gilbert 1
Hansen 1
A. Jones 1
The total is 58 - we are the third highest scorers behind Coventry and Ipswich and have conceded the joint fewest.
I was otherwise engaged during the first hour or so of the QPR game, at the Lyric Theatre, covering, well, theatre. And I will be there again tomorrow night, so I will keep the score a surprise, like I did then and the time I reviewed Ottilie. Of course each surprise was a delightful one, so let's hope for the same again tomorrow.
Spookily, tomorrow will also be almost ten years to the day of that season defining defeat at Charlton* in our last successful promotion campaign. It is the kind of moment that I have repeatedly thought about since to try and understand properly, in the same way I have repeatedly considered the Blackburn no-show of 1996, the doom and resulting bounce back of 1986 and the England circus that detrimentally affected our UEFA Cup Final preparations in 2006 while the absence of a guaranteed European spot for the following season vanished in an FA Cup semi defeat.
Were you stretching things, you could go back to 1976 and the time "we got well and truly stuffed, four-nowt" by Manchester City in a League Cup semi-final - the words of a legendary hero of mine**, to my recollection - and the hero thinking that his team was being found out and he couldn't handle many more nights like that. I also recall that the hero admitted that he left the club too soon and should've spent more money on players while the going was good.
Still, he did lift the World Cup with his brother ten years before that, while North Korea beat Italy 1-0 at Ayresome. My memory tells me that goalscorer Pak Doo Ik gave football up for a career in dentistry.
What is it about these '6' years and their hugely dramatic developments, particularly for Boro? One kind of hopes that this year we succeed in a less edge-of-the-seat way and that the "dramatic moment" has actually occurred during the season this time*** and not the year. Happy to pen more on these moments in a mini-piece entitled "The Joy And Pain Of 6" if you'd like to see it, although I'm most knowledgeable from 1996 onwards as I actually experienced that period in real time.
*March 13, 2016
**Big Jack, of course
***Rob Edwards leading us near the top of the league, then along came Wolves...
@simonfallaha a six pack penned by you will certainly be a good read, so yes please
Josh Coburn has put Millwall ahead at Derby and Hull are winning away. Ipswich, meanwhile, are failing to do it on a wet night Tuesday night in Stoke.
None of which matters, of course, as long as we win tomorrow.