Stan Anderson was appointed to succeed Raich Carter in 1966 as Boro were relegated to the Third Division for the first time in their history. Even though most of us were ecstatic about England’s World Cup win during the summer of 1966, it still didn’t console us that Boro had just been relegated to the Third Division. One might have half expected it though, as Boro had just avoided relegation two years previously after winning four and drawing one of their last six matches to finish 17th on a measly 35 points (two points for a win in those days). The following season had followed a similar pattern, but despite Jim Irvine scoring 35 league goals during those two seasons, Boro couldn’t extricate themselves out of the bottom three from mid-March onwards despite centre half Dickie Rooks scoring a hat-trick in the last match, a 3-5 defeat at Cardiff.
So what could the Boro fans expect under manager Stan Anderson the next season? Well, firstly a new centre forward as Jim Irvine switched to an inside forward position and in came John O’Rourke as the leader, Boro started the new season well enough with an opening day 3-2 away win at Colchester but that was followed by taking only one point from the next five matches with Boro now second from bottom. When Arthur Horsfield, who hadn’t featured much in the relegation season, scored a couple of second half goals to turn a 1-2 deficit into a 3-2 win at home to Workington and two days later he and O’Rourke both scored in a creditable 2-2 home draw against reventual Champions QPR, Boro fans may have imagined that the corner had been turned, but successive away defeats 1-5 at Gillingham and 0-2 at Watford suggested another relegation battle, this time to the Fourth Division.
However what happened next was quite a revelation with Boro scoring a total of eight goals in the next two home matches with wins against Swindon and Swansea, a draw at Reading, followed by a home win over Doncaster, then a remarkable 5-4 away win at fourth placed Mansfield taking Boro up to mid-table. But typically Boro then took only one point from the next four matches and Boro had fallen down to 19th position. By now I among many others couldn’t see how Boro were to mount a promotion bid despite a much vaunted attacking trio of Horsefield, O’Rourke and Irvine although the latter didn’t feature too often that season.
But we of little faith! From the 10th of December to 27th of March Boro went on a sensational run of eleven wins and four draws in their next 16 matches. This included two derby wins against Darlington over Christmas – 3-0 at Feethams before a crowd of 18,144 and 4-0 at Ayresome Park before a crowd of 25,213. That meant 11 goals with none conceded in three matches and Boro had now reached the lofty position of 6th. However, just as a push for second place became a possibility, Boro lost four of their next five matches and a promotion push seemed to have been derailed.
Fortunately similar to the current season the teams vying for that second place were also having a touch of the wobbles, so going into the last half a dozen fixtures, Boro were still 7th and certainly in contention if they could show a little more consistency. Wins over Easter at Peterborough and at home to Orient raised hopes once more, and now that John Hickton was also joining the scoring ranks with a hat-trick against Torquay before a seasons best attendance of 27,160 Boro had risen to 4th. A disappointing draw at lowly Brighton didn’t seem to deter the fans as Boro’s last two fixtures were at home. Saturday 13th May saw an even larger crowd of 32,503 and another two Hickton goals beat Peterborough for the second time in three weeks.
Finally came the coup de grace. In those days because of match postponements, not every club played their final match on the same day, never mind the same kick off time, so come the following Tuesday if Boro could win their last game promotion would be assured. I don’t think anyone doubted that Boro would win; it was destined to be. Another huge crowd were in celebratory mood as ten minutes after half time Hickton put Boro 3-0 up, and later as the crowd sang their anthem ‘John O’Rourke, give us a goal’ he obliged to complete his hat-trick in a 4-0 win. The official attendance was given as 39,683, but some thought the ground record had been broken with the number of gatecrashers.
Boro finished 12 points behind QPR with 55 points, conceded 64 goals but scored 87 league goals with John O’Rourke scoring 27, Arthur Horsefield 22 and John Hickton 15. Of course the latter, having been converted from a fullback by Stan Anderson to a centre forward, subsequently became a legendary goal scoring centre forward for Boro with a total of 159 league goals in 415 matches making him the fourth highest goal scorer after George Camsell 325, George Elliott 203 and Brian Clough 197.
The following season Boro finished a creditable 4th after taking some time to adapt to the higher division. A crowd of 25,916 saw the opening 0-2 home defeat to Ipswich (the eventual champions) and Boro failed to win any of their first five home matches, and a sole 2-0 away win at Hull was followed by a 1-6 reverse at Birmingham. So having dropped to 17th before the visit of Plymouth crowds had dropped below 20,000 such was the fickleness of the Boro faithful. Boro won that match 5-0 against Plymouth but lost 0-3 at Cardiff ten days later. By now crowds had fallen below 17,000 despite a vast improvement in results up to Christmas. In fact Boro won the next five matches with goals aplenty – Preston at home 5-0, Derby away 4-2, Palace at home 3-0, Ipswich away 2-1, then the Saturday before Christmas with the usual large festive crowd of 27,952 for the visit of Carlisle when four second half goals including a John O’Rourke hat-trick in a 4-0 win had elevated Boro up to 8th place.
However Boro lost four of the next five matches and were back down to mid table. What’s more the goals had dried up – 18 goals in those 5 wins were followed by one sole Hickton goal in the next five matches. Boro did recover though with 9 wins in their last 15 matches but, apart from a 2-1 home win against top of the table QPR, the season ebbed away with crowds around the 13,000 mark.
As I said to start this 1967/68 season, I reckon it was a satisfactory season and helped to stabilise the club in a higher league. The highlight of the season though was probably the 2-1 League Cup win at home to First Division Chelsea in September before a crowd of 30,417. In fact Cup ties in those days recorded much bigger crowds than today – 28,509 against Hull City and 29,086 against Bristol City when the league average was less than 19,000.
Maybe because of the advent of substitutes, Stan Anderson often did make changes especially when fixtures occurred within a day or two of each other. For example in 1968 Boro had had quite a successive run of wins from late January until early March (5 wins and 2 draws in 7 matches) which took them into 2nd place. A 0-3 defeat at Carlisle was a setback, but John Hickton’s four goals saw off Hull City 5-3 and a draw at Blackburn saw Boro back in 2nd place before Boro faced a week of destiny in Holy Week. Derby County were almost assured of promotion but Boro had to face the other rivals for promotion – Cardiff City at home with Crystal Palace and Charlton Athletic on Good Friday and Saturday. Despite only drawing with Cardiff, Stan Anderson played the same eleven at Palace both matches finishing goalless. Boro had to win their remaining four matches to have any chance of promotion, so with the last throw of the dice Boro made four changes for the Charlton match but lost 0-2 and eventually finished 4th one point behind Charlton but seven behind Palace who were promoted. So maybe the manager should have made changes before those last seven matches because the players looked jaded and only scored 4 times and took only 4 points from 4 draws.
The following season Boro again finished 4th with 50 points and only three points behind second placed Blackpool, and with five matches remaining after Alex McMordie had scored a late winner in a 3-2 home win over Watford they were second, but two away defeats at Hull and Villa put paid to any chance of promotion. Boro’s home league form in those two seasons and indeed in the next two seasons was remarkable :-
Played 84, Won 57, Drew 21 and Lost 6 - Goals 140/54 - Points 135
Yes only six defeats…
▫12 April 69 ... Bury 2-3
▫27 Sept 69 .... Blackpool 0-2
▫26 Dec 69 ..... Carlisle 0-2
▫29 Aug 70 ..... Oxford 0-2
▫20 March 71 ... Orient 0-1
▫ 6 Nov 71 ..... Preston 0-1
…and typically for Boro only the Blackpool defeat was against a top team. However in contrast Boro’s away form was abysmal – 7 wins in 1967/68 reasonable, but a total of 18 in the next four seasons well below par for a team hoping for promotion.
Under Anderson’s management Boro had finished 6th, 4th, 4th, 7th, 9th and 4th. John Hickton had scored 91 goals in the first four of those seasons, but only scored a total of 25 in the last two. Nevertheless Stan Anderson had left his successor with some fine footballers as we all well remember.
Stan Anderson ratio of wins to matches played places him second from the 30 men to manage Middlesbrough FC. Stan stands just a fraction below Jack Charlton who he provided with an excellent squad of players, and for that we owe him our eternal gratitude. I can just hear Kammy shouting “Unbelievable Jeff”, but the statistics of the top 5 below prove that point:-
▫ Jack Charlton ... 74 wins in 168 matches = 44.05%
▫ Stan Anderson ...124 wins in 282 matches = 43.97%
▫ Aitor Karanka ... 71 wins in 164 matches = 43.28%
▫ Bruce Rioch ..... 69 wins in 164 matches = 42.07%
▫ Bryan Robson .... 99 wins in 261 matches = 37.93%
Although all Stan’s seasons were outside the top division, whereas of course Jack’s wins apart from one season, and Bryan’s wins apart for two seasons were all recorded in the top division, but a win is a win in whatever league it is recorded so due credit should be afforded to Stan Anderson.
Just to follow up on Stan Anderson the player, I always remember him as a wing half/midfielder but surprised to hear him described in the Gazette as a centre half. I can’t recall him playing in that position for Boro, but maybe he started his career there. What does come through though are the fine tributes from Gordon Jones and Alan Peacock, and all three along with Mark Proctor described as ‘gentlemen’. As a club we were lucky to have them as players, and still lucky to have the three still alive as ambassadors for not only our club, but also our area.
One interesting fact that Gordon Jones mentioned about Stan Anderson, was his disillusionment with modern football where possession seems to be all important and that he wouldn’t compromise the way he wanted Boro to play just to maybe improve Boro’s dreadful away record. I’m not going to criticise Stan for that, but Jack Charlton obviously thought differently and, with many of Stan’s players, absolutely ‘smashed’ the league. Just like Brian Clough did, get the defence right by playing ‘boring’ football, and then play the Anderson way when all other teams fear you. Jack’s team didn’t score too many goals in its first 10 or 12 matches, but once he was confident that the defence was almost impregnable (not withstanding the 1-5 defeat at Forest) the midfielders could be given licence to play more forcefull and penetrative football (successive 4-0 away wins at West Bromwich and Fulham, then the 8-0 annihilation of Sheffield Wednesday).
In memory of Stan Anderson, may he rest in peace.