The Fabric of Boro: 1994/95 Away shirt
VHS Gold, Hendrie's heroics and a Hartson hammering
The first in a series of articles by Ian Smith on the memories attached to classic Boro shirts.
I’ll be honest, when it came to the 94/95 season away shirt I wasn’t sure where to start with the memories. During that promotion season, as a new era was ushered in by Manchester United legend Bryan Robson, the home shirt dominated my thoughts, to this day being one of my favourite of all time.
These pieces aren’t a critique on shirt designs; however it’s impossible not to let you in on exactly how I felt when I first saw it.
“Urghhhhh” I believe was the reaction my 9-yr-old self gave when it was unveiled.
My mother clearly didn’t agree as she bought one, whereas I opted for the home shirt of course. That said, over the years, as tends to happen, tastes change and surprisingly my thoughts on that away jersey couldn’t be any further opposite. I love it, so much so in fact that I’ve claimed my mother’s original as my own now.
But anyway, this isn’t a review of the shirt itself, more the memories it evokes. My aforementioned comments regarding the lack of memories in comparison to its home version mean that I had to do a bit of digging into the past, something I didn’t want to do for these pieces. After all, it’s about my memories, you know, what I can remember, so going back in time kind of feels like cheating.
Nonetheless, I prefer to see it more as a refresher if anything, because the moment I heard John Gubba’s voice on the VHS season review, all those wonderful moments came flooding back, as if it were only yesterday.
So here goes. From a Scotsman’s hat-trick, a Norwegian Beauty and some VHS gold to a battering inspired by a certain John Hartson, here are my (partly refreshed) not always happy memories on that classic Boro shirt.
‘Robbo’s Dream’
Now, one thing that immediately springs to mind when I think of the away shirt is Boro’s tie away at Scarborough in the Coca Cola Cup second round, first leg.
Yes, they wore it for the first time competitively, a rain-soaked September evening on the coast that saw the battle of the Boro’s take place. In terms of the outcome there wasn’t anything unusual, Middlesbrough ran out 4-1 winners (they repeated the scoreline in the home leg), a pretty routine victory then.
But, what wasn’t routine was that the game featured in a documentary called ‘Robbo’s Dream’, a Club released VHS “exclusive” that offered an inside view “from the fitness room to the manager’s chair”. The video was narrated by producer, filmmaker, broadcaster and regular Boro contributor John Gubba, chronicling the events of Robson’s early days as Player/Manager at Ayresome Park;
“A lot of the media focus was on Bryan Robson in his first season as player manager and how he led Boro to promotion as champions. I was there on the pitch at Ayresome Park the day Robbo was unveiled as the new boss. I still have the image in my head of Robbo speaking to the crowd through an old fashioned handheld loudspeaker. We were filming for the club video of the season”.
A particular feature of the documentary was a ‘Day in the life’ with Robson, going behind the scenes into day to day life for the boss as well as shadowing him for the cup tie away at Scarborough, hence why the shirt reminds me of this. Tenuous link I know, but the footage of the game as well the build up to it lives long in the memory.
I can still see Robson and his assistant Viv Anderson discussing many things as they travelled to the game, one being who was having the car on what day, as well as both of them offering up their experiences of Scarborough. Anderson also revealed his preference for listening to The Rolling Stones, “one of the best rock’n’roll bands in the world” before a game, as he blasted them out over the car stereo. “Is this how you relax before a game?” Robson asked, seemingly perplexed.
That was in stark contrast to what the players will have been doing, Robson informing the camera crew that they’d be asleep at that point. A quick call to John Pickering, Middlesbrough’s First Team coach, confirmed “tea and toast was at 5pm”. The players were in for a treat it for their pre-match fuel.
Whilst all of this sounds extremely trivial, for a Boro-mad fan, especially someone like me who couldn’t get enough Middlesbrough related content, it was absolute gold to get those sorts of insights. Hard to imagine something similar happening now, even with the social media exposure these days with the Club and players on Twitter etc. This was before all of that, an era where VHS season reviews were commonplace. Nowadays you see every goal of every game as and when they happen, hard to see a need for a modern day equivalent.
There was something special about those videos, a physical object you could build up a collection of, which was heaven for me given I’m something of a collector/hoarder. Watching stuff back on YouTube, whilst extremely convenient and definitely more reliable than a VHS, lacks the satisfaction you get from perusing the neatly, chronologically ordered tapes you have at home…well I think so anyway.
Hartson inspired Hatters run riot
Kenilworth Road provided the venue for what can only described as an ‘off day’ for Robson’s men. On the back of a home defeat to Tranmere he will have hoped his team would bounce back, but as it happened they were bullied on an afternoon where a young John Hartson ran riot.
Target man Paul Wilkinson, who had been pretty quiet in front of goal up to this point with only two goals to his name in the league, will have been hoping to add to his tally that afternoon. Indeed he did, but not quite how he would’ve imagined it.
Connecting with a Luton town free kick, he headed it past Stephen Pears expertly in a way that had been lacking from the big man that season. It was a perfect header. I still remember watching the goal back on the highlights and thinking that, despite being an own goal, how good a goal it was. Daft really as I was fuming at the loss, but it was hard not to appreciate the finish in a weird way. Not sure Wilko would’ve felt the same mind!
His second regrettable intervention wasn’t quite as spectacular, more of a typical ‘wrong place, wrong time’ incident. Whilst not an own goal, his head deflected a David Preece effort away from Pears and into the net. Not a game he’ll remember fondly.
Hartson at this point had already played a big part in the second goal, a Dwight Marshall close range finish, playing him in behind a static Boro defence via the flick of his right boot. They combined once again in the second half, Marshall tapping in from inside the 6 yard box following a lay off from the Welshman. It was chaos in the Boro defence.
It got worse as Hartson found himself in on goal after neat play from his teammates had outfoxed the beleaguered Boro. Smashing in an angled drive that flew past the despairing Pears, Luton went five nil up.
A late consolation from Derek Whyte made it 5-1, but the damage had been done. Happy memories eh!
However I seem to recall a more memorable encounter with Luton Town later that season for Boro…
Hendrie’s heroics
On that memorable encounter, you immediately think of a certain Scotsman banging in two vital goals in Ayresome Park’s farewell, but I’ll save that special day for when I’m reminiscing over that beautiful home jersey.
We’re thinking away shirt memories and with John Hendrie, like so often that season, he provided many great moments, some classic ones in this shirt.
Perhaps the main memory for me, in a game he basically dominated, was a televised 3-0 win over Burnley at Turf Moor.
Hat-trick hero Hendrie served to hit home his quality in front of a nationwide TV audience, giving The Clarets’ defence a torrid time. Of the three goals he scored his first was possibly the best.
A defence splitting pass by player-manager Robson over the top saw Hendrie in on goal. Watching the ball all the way, but knowing exactly where the keeper was, he hooked it over the onrushing Marlon Beresford (who would be a Boro player a few seasons later) and then wheeled away in delight. Not for the first time, he’d got the better of Beresford that season, who by the end of this game would surely have been sick of the sight of him.
The enduring image I have from this encounter though is that of Hendrie celebrating following his scrappy second. After rounding poor Marlon and falling over but still managing to poke the ball over the line, Hendrie was mobbed by his teammates as he clenched his fists in delight.
He rounded his hat-trick off in typical Hendrie style, finishing inside the box with aplomb, slotting it past Beresford with ease.
Hard to believe really that Hendrie was never considered for International duty. The man from Lennoxtown was imperious in his time with Boro, but as Gubba states here, like many, he felt it was more to do with his status as a second tier striker, rendering him off the radar;
“John Hendrie was absolutely top quality, and a first class guy. His partnership with Wilkinson was superb and a joy to watch. I loved watching them both but Hendrie just had that good extra something. He weaved through defences with style and panache. I don’t think he got the full recognition he deserved from the main stream media, probably because he was playing in the championship for unfashionable Middlesbrough”.
Hendrie would go on to be Boro’s top scorer that season, his 17 goals in all competitions inspiring his team to go on and win the First Division title.
A stunner from Jan Åge
Ask me what goal I think of when I see the away strip from 94/95 and it’ll be this one.
On a terribly wet afternoon at Oakwell, Boro came up against Barnsley in a late season showdown where points meant prizes – the ultimate one being promotion. A win would’ve been preferable, but a draw would set them up nicely for the final game at Ayresome Park the following week.
As it happened, it ended 1-1, The Tykes pegging us back. What seemed like a bit of a blow at the time soon didn’t matter given events the following weekend, and in the years that have passed since then, the beauty of Jan Åge Fjørtoft’s strike is just that little bit greater now it can be enjoyed in isolation.
Often an overused term in the game, the Norwegian really did have a great touch for a big man. The finish alone was pure class, but the work done by our then record signing to get into a scoring position deserves praise too.
Receiving the ball as he entered the box, he dragged his opponent wide of the goal, stepping over the ball as he jockeyed for the perfect position to strike. Then in one swift movement, he shifted the ball from his right boot to his left, dropping his shoulder before curling a wonderful effort past the despairing keeper.
Other than just how magnificent the goal was, I always remember Lennie Lawrence, who was co-commentating that day, calling “goal” before it hit the back of the net, such was the quality of the strike.
A drenched Fjørtoft ran towards the travelling support, unusually opting against his trademark ‘aeroplane’ celebration, in delight as the commentator pointed out “that’s why they signed him –record signing!”.
Unfortunately, despite a bright start in his career with Boro, he never really hit the goal trail too often, scoring only 13 goals in 50 appearances in all competitions. However, as well as the above goal, he’ll always be fondly remembered for the second goal of the game in that famous Riverside curtain-raiser against Chelsea a few months later.
Other memories of this shirt include;
The tale of two testimonials;
Testimonial 1 – Clayton Blackmore, Ayresome Park v Manchester United
To this day, and if anyone knows why then please do get in touch, I still can’t remember what the reasons were for Middlesbrough hosting Clayton Blackmore’s testimonial.
The obvious one, something I’ve been told a few times, is that it was to do with the fact that he’d left Manchester United just as he’d become eligible to be awarded one. However, that still doesn’t explain why they didn’t have it at Old Trafford? Possibly because he wasn’t a megastar, despite his lengthy service at United, but it just felt odd that Boro laid it on for him.
Anyway, I digress.
Three nil to United it ended, but a packed out Ayresome got to see plenty of quality, not just from Alex Ferguson’s exciting blend of youth and experience, but Boro more than held their own and looked impressive. Given the occasion it’s hard to judge properly, but players such as Craig Hignett, Robbie Mustoe and peripheral figure Tommy Wright stood out, up against the likes of Mark Hughes, Brian McClair, as well as a certain David Beckham and Paul Scholes.
Testimonial 2 – Stephen Pears, Ayresome Park, v err…Middlesbrough
In a season where eras were beginning, they were also ending too. The end of Ayresome Park coincided with the end of Stephen Pears’ time with a club he’d served with distinction since 1985. Ten years had passed, and so is the way when that milestone is reached, a testimonial was laid on, and nobody deserved one more than Pears.
The game saw the present of Middlesbrough pitted against the past. Indeed it was the past who donned the green of the away shirt, and it was the stars of yesteryear that stand out the most when I look back at this game.
In a side packed with Boro favourites including Brian Laws, Tony McAndrew, Mark Proctor and, er Peter Beardsley, it was two heroes of mine that combined to open the scoring.
A cross from the left by Stuart Ripley was headed home, rather appropriately, at the Holgate End by Bernie Slaven. The former Albion Rovers man performed his trademark celebration, climbing the fence behind the goal to enjoy the moment, like he did so often in years before, with the fans.
The scoring was completed by Beardsley, who had been invited to play due to his connection with Pears from his apprentice days at Manchester United, and rather fittingly Pears himself, who notched a penalty in the second half as he swapped sides to play for the select eleven.
The game also gave the club the chance to parade the First Division trophy in front of packed out crowd in what was the final game of any sort to be played at Ayresome Park.
Memories and football shirts. Two things that are forever intertwined.