April 30 – End of Ayresome
AS Middlesbrough fans spend the next couple of weeks fretting over the possible end of the Premiership dream, today in 1995 was the end of another era as the club played their final game in their Ayresome Park stadium.
Ayresome had been the home to the Boro faithful since 1903, when the club won election to the Football League and needed an improved stadium, so packed their bags and ditched Linthorpe Road West cricket ground, where they started life.
The Boro bosses chose to build their new ground at the utopian-sounding Paradise Field, across the way from where former Football League side, the uber-cool named Middlesbrough Ironopolis plied their trade. There really aren’t enough teams using the ‘Ironopolis’ suffix these days.
Perhaps Ayresome Park’s most famous games were when they played host to North Korea’s World Cup adventure in 1966, holding all three of their group games which culminated in their 1-0 win over Italy, one of the biggest upsets the competition has ever seen.
As Middlesbrough plodded along, failing to rock the football world to it’s foundations, Aryesome Park began to show it’s age. It’s defining moment came in 1986, when the gates were locked as the club fell into liquidation.
In 1994 plans were unveiled for a new 30,000-seat stadium on the bank of the River Tees and Ayresome’s days were numbered.
The final game was played today in 1995 and Boro rose to the occasion, beating Luton Town 2-1 to secure the Division 1 title and promotion to the Premier League.
Meanwhile, the builders of the new stadium proved to be better finishers than Robbie Fowler in his pomp, taking only 32 weeks to construct the new £16m ground.
After a public vote, Boro’s new home was named the Riverside Stadium and the Smoggies could boast of having the biggest arena to be built in England since the Second World War.
See some 1966 footage below, and for another emotional farewell from today click here.
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