Players

Last Updated: 09 July 2020

Heading into the mid-1980s, we were getting back to our swashbuckling best – and helping to lead the charge was talismanic Paddy Butcher

Paddy Butcher

We weren’t around at the time ourselves – but, for those who were, the mid-1980s saw Boro’ back at our swashbuckling best. The step from the United Counties League to the Isthmian League was a tough one to make. So, we needed the players who could help us make that …

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For a Boro' side adapting to life in the Football League, one of the men that Graham Westley looked to for that bit extra was Marvin Williams

Marvin Williams

For a Boro’ side adapting to life in the Football League, one of the men that Graham Westley looked to for that bit extra was Marvin Williams. After storming to the 2009-10 Blue Square Premier title, we pretty much kept faith with the same band of brothers who had earned …

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Think of the name Gittings and we bet that Martin comes to mind. But the service Peter Gittings gave to Boro' also deserves recognition...

Peter Gittings

“At least I’m the best player in my own family” – it says much about England’s 2001 Ashes team that bowler Jimmy Ormond’s best moment in a two-Test career is the withering put-down he delivered to Australia’s Mark Waugh. In much the same way, we can understand how Peter Gittings …

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He kept the goals out as we saw success during the 2010s – but, to Dean Thompson, there's much more to Chris Day than his shot-stopping skills

Chris Day

Goalkeepers. In a lot of ways, it’s much easier to notice their impact on a team – compared to other positions on the pitch, anyway. Think of Gordon Banks and that save from Pele in 1970 is probably what comes to mind first. What about Massimo Taibi? We bet the …

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In modern football, right backs are expected to do it all – in attack or at the back. But it's nothing new at Boro', as you'll find out now...

Right Backs

A great philosopher* once said “nobody grows up wanting to be a Gary Neville“. But we’re not sure about that one. At Boro’, we’ve seen lads wearing the number two shirt and doing quite brilliant things while doing so. In modern football, right backs are expected to do it all …

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Like all those England one-cap wonders, we've also signed our fair share of one-outing – er – wonders? And Carel van der Velden is one of 'em...

Carel van der Velden

If we asked you to, we bet you could name at least one of England’s one-cap wonders. Steve Guppy – he’s one. Brian Stein is another. See, it’s easy. But what about if we ask you to reel off one of Boro’s (many) one-outing wonders from over the years? Now …

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Part of Cloughie's efforts to reshape Boro's squad for the 1998-9 campaign, Rodney McAree joined in September 1998. But he didn't hang around...

Rodney McAree

Newcastle aside, there ain’t too much about the 1997-8 campaign we’d look back on with love. Cloughie got to work rebuilding the Boro’ squad during summer 1998. New faces for the 1998-9 season included Carl Alford, Lee Howarth and Dominic Naylor. But the start of the season didn’t put an end …

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Michael Bostwick. Unassuming, but certainly not underrated. And we're sure that all Boro' fans speak highly of both the man and the player...

Michael Bostwick

Michael Bostwick. Unassuming, but certainly not underrated. And we’re sure that all Boro’ fans speak highly of both the man and the player. Mark Poplett – or Sev as you might also know him – is here to tell us why Bozzie has a special place in his heart. And …

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If we had to pick our favourite all-time player, it turns out George Boyd is our man. But explaining why ain't quite that easy as we thought...

George Boyd

If we had to choose our favourite all-time Boro’ player, it turns out that George Boyd is that man. But it also turns out that telling you why ain’t the doddle we thought it’d be. To get our sparkly new concept up and running, we thought it’d be so simple; …

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We doubt that many new faces will ever be on the same book as George Boyd – let alone the same page.

Boro’ Left Wingers

The scourge of the English national team for most of the 1990s and maybe even still now, but we’ve had some real gems of left wingers here. From the word go, we’ve had fellas on the southpaw side; twinklin’ and jiggin’ their way down the flank. All the while, they’ve …

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