Prelude

A look back at 1985-86

Boro’s start to the 1985-86 season had been excellent, with five wins and two draws in the opening seven Goal League games. However, that was as good as it got and the club ended the campaign in 15th place out of 22. In knock-out competitions, there was an encouraging F.A. Cup run in which Bridlington Town, Crook Town, Blyth Spartans and Bishop Auckland were all disposed of, but, having reached the First Round Proper, Boro then fell apart at Notts County and crashed 1-6. The F.A. Trophy saw Boro beat Barrow, but lose a second replay to Southport in Round 2, while in the Bob Lord Trophy there was aggregate defeat (3-4) against Altrincham. All in all, it was a case of unfulfilled early promise and not a great deal to hope for in the future.

The new look begins

In May 1986, the Board decided the time had come to act following a disappointing fifteenth place finish. Harry Dunn, long-serving clubman, with 901 senior appearances to his name and a spell in the management hot-seat when there was no money to spend, was replaced at the helm by the relatively unknown Neil Warnock. The new boss had begun his playing career with English soccer’s oldest club – Sheffield F.C.. From here Warnock moved into professional soccer with Chesterfield, who signed him in July 1968. He went on to play for seven other League clubs, hitting 36 senior goals in his 296 senior starts and 31 substitute roles in a career which ended at the close of the 1978-79 season. Moving into management with Gainsborough Trinity, Warnock was at Burton Albion when the Boro job came up.

For the 1986-87 season, Boro retained only 4 players of the 32 used in the last campaign, when 4 or more goals had been conceded in league games on six occasions. Of these only midfielder Neil Sellers and defender Neil Thompson were to play a significant part in the coming season. Warnock shopped around quickly and sensibly to entice nine new players to the club, with his new assistant, Barry Gallagher, among these. Six others moved to the Yorkshire coast from Football League clubs – Mike Brolly, Tommy Graham, David Kaye, Paul Kendall, Cec Podd and Steve Richards. The other newcomers were Andy Harrison, from Kettering Town, and striker Stewart Mell, who was signed from Burton Albion. The only outlay was the £2,000 spent on Mell.

Pre-season

Pre-season went well, with 12 goals scored against 4, as the team racked up five wins and a draw in six outings. Hull City were beaten 1-0 during this sequence and Boro went into the new campaign with some confidence. There was more than a championship at stake this time round. This was because the Football League had finally agreed to allow the champions of the newly-named G.M. Vauxhall Conference to be automatically promoted to the Football League 4th Division, with the League bottom club being relegated. Promotion was, however, to be subject to the champions meeting ground grading regulations.

So that's the first part of the story of the 1986-87 season.    

And if you'd like to know what was happening on today's date in various years from 1879 to 2007, the link below will take you to the "Today in Boro History" page.