At the end of the 2017/18 season, I was mulling over the prospect of Boro winning the play-offs (although I knew that I shouldn’t really have got ahead of myself) and wondered how many seasons Boro had participated in the top league. Well not surprisingly Boro have spent the majority of the time in the top tier, 61 in fact, with 45 in the second tier and two in the third, that’s over 56%. However, since the start of the Jack Charlton era in 1974 Boro have spent 24 of the 44 seasons also in the top tier which is just over 54% so not much difference.
The trouble is though that Boro have only had two sustained periods in the top league since the Second World War – eight successive seasons from 1974, and eleven successive seasons from the start of the Riverside Revolution. The Premier League is much stronger nowadays as we found out last season, so is it possible for a club like Boro to establish itself there for a period in excess of say ten years, or are we more likely to become a yo-yo club?
I think it’s nigh on impossible for Boro ever to challenge for the league title as they have only twice managed to do it, in 1937/38 when finishing 5th (6 points behind Arsenal) and 1974/75 when finshing 7th (5 points behind Derby County). Their highest finishing position was 3rd in 1913/14, but that was 8 points behind Blackburn Rovers although only one point behind second placed Aston Villa. In fact Boro have only headed the league at any point in six seasons, these being the furthest dates into the season as follows:-
▫28 Oct 1911 - P 9 - W 6 - D 1 - L 2 - F19 - A12 - Pts.13
▫17 Sep 1919 - P 6 - W 4 - D 1 - L 1 - F10 - A 5 - Pts. 9
▫ 9 Sep 1935 - P 4 - W 3 - D 0 - L 1 - F16 - A 6 - Pts. 6
▫12 Sep 1936 - P 5 - W 4 - D 0 - L 1 - F 7 - A 2 - Pts. 8
▫25 Dec 1950 - P24 - W14 - D 7 - L 3 - F58 - A31 - Pts.35
▫23 Oct 1976 - P11 - W 6 - D 3 - L 2 - F 8 - A 6 - Pts.15
The 1950/51 season was the season when Boro were still in 2nd position after 32 matches and 4th going into the last match but subsequently finished 6th and 13 points behind Tottenham Hotspur.
I was a little surprised though that after Boro’s terrific start in the 1995/96 season that they were only 4th after the first ten matches on 21 October as I had erroneously assumed Boro had led the table at some point – especially considering their record was:-
▫ P10 - W6 - D3 - L1 - F11 - A4 - Pts 21 (3 points for a win)
But I think that many of us will agree that Jack Charlton’s second season in charge was Boro’s best chance of winning the old First Division because in match 38 we led eventual Champions Derby County at halftime but only drew 1-1 and then lost the next two matches. Had Boro won those three matches they would have finished a point ahead of Derby. What’s more Boro could have won the FA Cup also that year. Wow!