Going up with the Boro’ in 1967 by Boro' boss Stan Anderson

 

Going up with the Boro’

Stan Anderson – Captain of the North autobiography

Co-authored by Mark Metcalf and Stan Anderson

 

During the summer of 1966 I was trying very hard to get players in but we suffered a bit of a blow when Ian Gibson made apparent that he did not want to play in the Third Division and he went to Coventry City who paid £60,000 for his services.

 

It meant that we were short of experienced players and although that didn’t seem to matter when they season kicked off with a 3-2 win at Layer Road against Colchester United we were soon back in trouble as we lost four and drew just one of the next five. We were second bottom but I was at least cheered when John Hickton agreed to join us from Sheffield Wednesday.

 

My old sparring partner Alan Brown had taken ‘the Owls’ to the FA Cup Final the previous season and he told me that John could play in a lot of positions. So, I felt that the £20,000 fee would be a worthwhile investment. It turned out to be the best £20,000 any manager could have spent as any ‘Boro fan from that period would surely agree.

 

However, John’s first match at home to Workington started badly and we were two goals down before half time. Luckily, just before half time we were awarded a penalty and John, playing full-back, neatly struck it home and after the break we somehow managed to scrape home to win 3-2 courtesy of two Arthur Horsfield goals.

 

I was quickly learning the pressures involved in management. You always stress to players that the first five or ten minutes of any game of football are the most important - even the very best teams who start a game poorly find it difficult to recover. As a manager you want your players to start well. You want a good, quick pace and for them to get at the other team, whoever they are. Before one match against Gillingham. I had urged the players to get off to a good start as they ran out of the dressing room.

 

As there were a few minutes before kick-off Jimmy Headridge, the physiotherapist, asked if I wanted a quick of tea and when this was finished two minutes later we set off for the touchline. What I didn’t know was that this meant a walk right along the back of the stand to the far end before going out of the tunnel on to the side of the pitch and then back along it to the dug-out. When we were half way down the back of the stand there was huge roar and Gillingham had clearly opened the scoring. I couldn’t believe it. 1-0 down already. Jim and I were cursing our luck when,  less than 30 seconds later, as we turned to see the pitch for the first time, another roar went up as Gillingham scored their second. We were 2-0 down in the first couple of minutes and I hadn’t even seen the goals! We lost 5-1.

 

Thankfully, I was boosted shortly after by being able to persuade Airdrie’s goalkeeper Willie Whigham to join us. He was to play a big part in the club’s climb back and he might have given Jim Platt a more challenging time for the ‘keeper’s jersey later on if he hadn’t been such a big drinker.

One of Willie’s sessions sticks in my mind. We played AS Roma away in the Anglo Italian cup in the summer of 1970.  Willie’s drinking partner, Hugh McIlmoyle,  had been given permission to miss the second game away to Lanerossi Vicenza  a week later to fly home because his marriage was in trouble, And before he went he and Willie got totally wrecked. When Jimmy Greenhalgh  went to wake Willie, he had no luck. Hours later he finally managed to rouse himself and I told him to put on his training gear.  Jimmy and I worked him as hard as any player I’ve been associated with. To his credit he never said a word and when we played Vincenza he had an excellent game. He was particularly skilled in getting down to save shots and he was a great handler of the ball.

The previous season Willie had flattened Jimmy with a ‘Scot’s kiss.’ I wasn’t bothered about the reasons; Football is a passionate game and people fall out all the time. Sometimes there’s violence involved. I told him he had to apologise; he refused and saw I dropped him for the game of Blackpool.

His deputy, Maurice Short, was a 17-year-old who benefited by making his debut in a one-one draw. Willie played the rest of the games that season. He was never fazed by who we were playing and sometimes in the days leading up to the game didn’t even know who we faced.

‘Who are we playing on Saturday?’

‘Bury.’

‘Oh great, where at?’

A few weeks later.

‘Who are we playing on Saturday?’

‘Manchester United in the FA Cup.,

‘Oh great, where at?’

Once, at Norwich, Willie made a sprawling sea from the ex-Newcastle man Albert Bennett, whose momentum was such that he stopped just in front of the ‘keeper.

Next thing I know he is chasing Albert across the pitch and I have no idea why.

 Willie and running were never suited so Albert had no problems keeping  his distance before the referee’s whistle brought Willie to his senses.

Gordon Jones ran over to explain that the Norwich man had looked down at Willie after he made the save and said, ‘ you must be the ugliest ‘keeper I have ever seen.’

Albert was lucky Willie did not catch him as he would not have looked a pretty sight himself afterwards.

In 1966 we were having problems scoring goals. The possible solution occurred to me  watching John Hickton enjoying himself smashing home goals in training. I toyed with the idea of playing him up front where I knew he had played for Sheffield Wednesday on occasions. I was reluctant to move him forward as he seemed to have settled down well playing in defence. But as our form improved and we had more of the ball it was difficult not to notice how John was forever moving forward to join in attacks.

 

So, I decided to push John up front to support John O’Rourke, who I’d bought from Luton Town. I didn’t bother changing Hickton’s shirt and he played with number two on his back.  I doubt any number two has scored as many goals in a season! Whether his number confused defences I don’t know, but turning him into a centre forward certainly worked for us.

 

We started on a decent run, winning four from five including winning 5-4 at Mansfield, where afterwards I can recall their manager Bill McKinney, the ex-Newcastle player, joking that defences were on top. This was followed  in the next away game by a 4-4 draw at the Vetch Field against Swansea Town. Fancy conceding eight goals in two games and yet not losing either! We slowly moved up the table beating Darlington away and at home over Christmas by 3-0 and 4-0  respectively.

The first game attracted one of Feethams’ largest crowds ever – 18,144 – and I particularly remember the dressing room as it had a big stove in the middle. This must have been a thing among the lower league clubs in the north-east as Hartlepools also had one. Great on a cold day but not so good in hot weather.

 

Alec Stock’s Queens Park Rangers, who thrilled everyone in football that season when they won the first ever League Cup Final to be staged at Wembley when Rodney Marsh inspired them from 2-0 down to beat West Brom 3-2, were a long way out front and they went on to win the league by 12 points, losing only 5 games all season.

 

However, Watford and others, including Reading, were dropping points. We just hung on in there, I kept telling the players to believe in themselves and that certainly paid off against Shrewsbury Town when John Hickton grabbed the winner with less than two minutes remaining. The crowds were also increasing and confidence was growing that we could perhaps sneak up.

 

However, after we lost three in a row over Easter, even I thought we’d be playing at least one more season in the Third - although I consoled myself with the knowledge that with a full pre-season training schedule behind me and a team of my own players we’d go up the following year.

 

In the penultimate match of a season that started late due to the World Cup and ended in mid-May we were up against Peterborough United. More than 32,000 were in Ayresome Park. We were actually in sixth place before kick-off and had to win. In the first half we hit the woodwork three times and in my anxiety I must have smoked two full packets of cigarettes.

 

When John Hickton put us in the lead after 62 minutes the crowd went crazy but Peterborough scored a quick equaliser and I felt that we might blow it. But we didn’t and the winner was a great goal - Eric McMordie slipped the ball beyond the away defence and with three defenders closing in John Hickton hit a great shot that Tony Millington could never have saved.

 

When we ran off we were a point behind second placed Watford with a game in hand. Their 1-1 draw 1-1 at Oldham Athletic had finished their season and presented us with an opportunity.  With the Hornets having a better goal average by 0.0089 of a goal then a draw in our final game would not be enough. Standing in our way were  Oxford United. Nearly 40,000 packed the ground, with another 10,000 turned away. On 29 minutes they went mental when John O’Rourke headed David Chadwick’s corner home. Fourteen minutes later, in an exact repeat, it was 2-0 and when John Hickton headed in another Chadwick cross ten minutes into the second half I knew we were up. John O’Rourke got his hat-trick and we won 4-1. The crowd invaded the pitch at the end and the scenes were amazing. Within hours I had received a congratulations telegram from the Watford manager Ken Furphy and despite his obvious disappointment he was gracious enough to say: “I think Boro have deserved promotion after such a disastrous start to the season.”

 

In a complete reversal of the previous season the Middlesbrough Gazette this time printed a picture of the directors with a banner headline congratulating them on their efforts.

 

QPR  46   67

Boro 46    55

Watford 46   54

Reading 46   53

Bristol Rovers 46   53

 

 

Whenever I go back to the Boro there is always someone who will come up to me and say that the 1966-67 season was one of the most exciting seasons for them. They may be just being nice now that Boro have played in the Premiership, at Wembley and Cardiff in the League Cup Final and in Europe but I understand their feelings. I will always be grateful to the players of that side, the vast majority of whom could play the ball.

 

As a manager my philosophy was ‘pass and move’ and I always had the players working with the ball in training. What I tried to instil in players was that once they’ve won or got the ball they needed to keep it, so it was about making yourself available and being able to control the ball when you got it. Even today I get frustrated watching British players who don’t seem to have mastered the ability to control the ball.  I still think that players from Europe have better control than those brought up here. It frustrates the hell out of me.

 

At Middlesbrough my philosophy was helped enormously by our groundsman Wilf Atkinson, who treated the pitch as if it was his own lawn and produced a fabulous surface on which to play. When we were in the Second Division there were a couple of seasons were we only lost once at home in a season, and one of them was the final match when there was little to play for.