Famous names behind Middlesbrough’s Riverside Revolution - sporting bygones

The Riverside Stadium alumni features an array of stellar names in its relatively short 25-year history to date.

Middlesbrough recently celebrated a quarter of a century at their home by the Tees, a world away from the bad old days at Ayresome Park in the mid-Eighties in front of sparse crowds of around 5,000.

The likes of Lazio, Roma, Sporting Lisbon and Stuttgart have all visited in competitive fixtures, along with England’s finest – while the national team played a senior international at the Riverside in June, 2003 when Slovakia were beaten 2-1 thanks to a double from Michael Owen in his 50th appearance for the Three Lions.

It all began at the Riverside on August 26, 1995 when 28,286 supporters attended Boro’s game against Chelsea.

Fans of a certain vintage will recall how the Londoners were trounced 7-2 at Ayresome Park in a famous pre-Christmas fixture at Ayresome in December, 1978, when Micky Burns netted four times.

Many more will recall Boro’s 2-0 play-off semi-final victory over the Blues in May, 1988 through goals from Trevor Senior and Bernie Slaven, complete with a trademark fence-climb celebration from the Scot in front of the adoring Holgate End.

Boro’s maiden Riverside appointment also ended in a 2-0 home triumph. The honour of scoring the first goal at the stadium may not have belonged to a local lad, but the fact that an adopted Teessider struck it was perhaps the next best thing.

A Scouser by birth, Craig Hignett has made Teesside his home since moving to Boro in 1992.

His place in Boro folklore is assured, cemented by his strike against Chelsea with Jan-Aage Fjoftoft later afforded the chance to do his own inimitable ‘aeroplane’ goal celebration after sealing victory in the second half.

It was the perfect late summer day for the hosts, although it belied the fact that the build-up to Boro’s first game at their new home was anything but smooth.

The Riverside, with a capacity of more than 30,000, was the first stadium to be built after the Taylor Report and took just 32 weeks to complete for a cost to the club of £16m.

The finishing touches only arrived in the hours before kick-off against Chelsea, with the days before the opening being a manic hive of activity.

Hignett recalled: “We weren’t sure it would be ready. We trained on it the day before.

“We still had to wear hard hats around the place and it still hadn’t been signed off for its safety certificate. But we were assured that, come Saturday, the game would go ahead.

“Coming out to see the stadium full was something I will never forget. It took on another level.”

With a world-renowned name in the manager’s chair in Bryan Robson and a go-ahead board headed by a local lad made good in Steve Gibson, Boro were ready for take-off following their promotion back to the big time in the summer of 1995.

Good times lay in store for Boro, whose previous halcyon days had arrived in the mid-Seventies under Jack Charlton, when Souness, Maddren, Murdoch and Mills ruled the roost alongside an all too brief, but unforgettable spell in the late Eighties when Bruce Rioch’s braves of Mowbray, Pallister, Cooper, Slaven and Ripley stirred the hearts of all Teessiders.

But Boro were to move onto a different stratosphere at the Riverside under first Robson and then York-born Steve McClaren.

The Riverside was integral to Boro’s emergence on the national stage.

Ahead of moving into the Riverside, the £5.25m signing of Hull-born Nick Barmby, which smashed the club’s transfer record, was a sign that Boro meant business.

Barmby would form a telepathic understanding with Hignett in those early days during what many scribes called the ‘Riverside Revolution.’

November 1995 was also a landmark one for the Teessiders, with Samba superstar Juninho, a £4.75m signing from Brazilian outfit Sao Paulo, making his debut in front of a sell-out crowd against Leeds United and so Boro’s love affair with the player who became simply known by all and sundry as ‘The Little Fella’ began.

A sublime pass from Juninho set up Fjortoft for Boro’s goal in a 1-1 draw and countless other choice contributions would arrive from the diminutive genius in his time at the club.

The brief, but brilliantly beguiling reign of Juninho’s compatriot Emerson would also light up the Riverside while the goals flowed from Ravanelli during that roller-coaster 1996-97 campaign right from the moment that ‘The White Feather’ plundered a hat-trick in an astonishing debut in a 3-3 opening-day draw with Liverpool in front of the Match of the Day cameras in August, 1996.

It was a crazy season which ended in relegation and two cup finals for Boro, with more drama reserved for the Riverside during the following campaign.

The 1997-98 season was the time when Paul Merson – one of the most high-profile players to ever ply his trade in the second tier – inspired Boro to promotion and provided some heady moments along the way.

Pride of place went to the club’s 2-0 victory over Liverpool in the second leg of their League Cup semi-final in February, 1998 which booked a place in the final at Wembley, courtesy of early goals from Merson and Marco Branca.

It was a night that all those present will recall for ever and a day.

Despite being in the Championship, Boro averaged 29,994 during that promotion campaign. It rose to 34,386 in 1998-99, with the capacity of the Riverside increased after the corners at either side of the West Stand were filled in.

A crowd of 29,746 were there on September 16, 2004 to witness history in Boro’s first European game with goals from Jimmy Floyd-Hasselbaink and Viduka (2) giving the hosts a 3-0 Uefa Cup victory over Czech outfit Banik Ostrava.

Boro’s continental adventure would last two seasons with incredible games against first Basel and then Steaua Bucharest transpiring.

Each captivated not just those spectators present, but countless viewers watching on TV.

The name everyone always remembers is Massimo Maccarone.

The Italian’s time at Boro may not have been as fruitful as many envisaged at the outset, but his contributions on two unforgettable nights will always be fondly recalled.

Trailing 3-0 on aggregate, Steve McClaren’s side secured miraculous second-leg victories over their Swiss and Romanian rivals, with the job completed on each occasion in the dying stages by Maccarone.

It represented the high-water mark for the Riverside, a stadium which has packed plenty in during its opening 25 years.