1986–87 Middlesbrough F.C. season

Middlesbrough

1986-87 season
Chairman	Colin Henderson
Manager	Bruce Rioch
Football League Third Division	2nd
FA Cup	3rd round
League Cup	2nd round
Top goalscorer	League: Bernie Slaven (17) All: Bernie Slaven (21)
Highest home attendance	18,523 v Wigan Athletic Away: 13,835 v A.F.C. Bournemouth
Lowest home attendance	3,690 v Port Vale Away: 2,788 v Newport County

During the 1986-87 season, Middlesbrough participated in the Football League Third Division following their relegation the previous season. They were promoted back to the Second Division at the end of the season having finished second in the league.

Team Kit and Sponsors

During the 1986–87 season, Middlesbrough maintained the white band on their home kit from the previous two seasons and were sponsored by Dickens.

Home colours

Away colours

Season review

Pre-season panic

Main article: Middlesbrough F.C. survival from liquidation

The financial problems that had been plaguing the club since the early 1980s almost led the club into extinction following their relegation the previous season.

After Alf Duffield's resignation near the end of the previous season, Boro had been operating without a chairman. On 21 May 1986, the worst fears of Middlesbrough fans were realised. Debts believed to be in the region of £2 million meant the club were forced to call in the provisional liquidator. Late in July, the Inland Revenue took the club to court, claiming that it was owed £115,156 in tax arrears and so the judge issued a winding up order. On the second of August, Bruce Rioch and twenty-nine other non-playing staff were sacked by the Official Receiver and the gates of Ayresome Park were padlocked. Some players chose to remain and train under Rioch and coach Colin Todd, while others chose to leave.

Steve Gibson approached the local council, ICI and Graham Fordy of Scottish & Newcastle for help. An advert was placed in The Times for help, and Henry Moszkowicz was one of those who replied. Gibson reached an agreement with former chairman Alf Duffield, who was owed £500,000, that he would wind up the company. Clubs in less serious situations had previously used liquidation to get out of problems, but when it came to Middlesbrough's turn, the Football League showed a lack of support.

The council was unable to meet its £200,000 share of the pot to help the club, meaning Gibson and Moszkowicz had to raise their inputs. Three days before the start of the season, the league introduced a ruling meaning the club had to have £350,000 in working capital and show it could pay all creditors 100 pence in the pound. The death of the club was then announced on Tyne Tees Television.

A meeting with the Football League took place on Friday 22 August. Notes were passed from room to room between the league's representatives and the consortium. Colin Henderson agreed a deal with ICI for a bond, meaning that they would pick up a major part of any subsequent debt, and the consortium put in their £825,000. With ten minutes to spare before the registration deadline, the documents were signed by Graham Fordy, Reg Corbridge and Henry Moszkowicz. In recognition of Henderson's achievements in delivering the bond in a format acceptable to everyone, he was named chairman of Middlesbrough Football & Athletic Company (1986) Ltd., the new company formed by the purchase of Blackplay Ltd., a dead company, off the shelf. Gibson, Fordy, Corbridge and Moszkowicz formed the board. The club had been saved and the deal was announced to the public at the town hall.

Football League Third Division Results

      Win       Draw       Loss

Game	Date	Venue	Opponent	Result F–A	Attendance	Boro Goalscorers
1	23 August 1986	H	Port Vale	2–2	3,690	Stephens (2)
2	30 August 1986	A	Wigan	2–0	2,904	Turnbull, Mowbray
3	6 September 1986	H	Bury	3–1	6,499	Stephens (2), Slaven
4	13 September 1986	A	Gillingham	0–0	4,888
5	17 September 1986	A	Bristol Rovers	2–1	3,768	Slaven (2)
6	20 September 1986	H	Chesterfield	2–0	7,633	Mowbray, Laws
7	27 September 1986	A	Fulham	2–2	3,852	Laws, Hamilton
8	30 September 1986	H	Swindon	1–0	9,221	Laws
9	4 October 1986	A	Rotherham	4–1	4,321	Stephens (2), Laws (2)
10	11 October 1986	H	Blackpool	1–3	11,470	Stephens
11	18 October 1986	H	Walsall	3–1	8,349	Stephens (2), Laws
12	21 October 1986	A	Notts County	0–1	4,405
13	25 October 1986	A	Bristol City	2–2	8,800	Slaven, Laws
14	1 November 1986	H	Bournemouth	4–0	10,702	Stephens, Slaven, Hamilton, Ripley
15	4 November 1986	H	Bolton	0–0	10,092
16	8 November 1986	A	Darlington	1–0	9,947	Stephens
17	22 November 1986	A	Newport County	1–0	2,788	Mowbray
18	29 November 1986	H	Chester City	1–2	9,376	Slaven
19	13 December 1986	H	Doncaster	1–0	8,100	Mowbray
20	21 December 1986	A	Brentford	1–0	5,504	Slaven
21	26 December 1986	H	Carlisle	1–0	14,216	Gill
22	27 December 1986	A	Mansfield	1–1	5,042	Proudlock
23	1 January 1987	A	York	1–3	8,611	Mowbray
24	3 January 1987	H	Newport County	2–0	9,595	Gill, Stephens
25	24 January 1987	A	Bury	2–0	3,485	Slaven (2), Laws (pen)
26	7 February 1987	H	Bristol Rovers	1–0	9,610	Ripley
27	14 February 1987	A	Chesterfield	1–2	4,085	Slaven
28	17 February 1987	A	Port Vale	0–0	3,263
29	21 February 1987	H	Fulham	3–0	9,361	Slaven, Hamilton
30	28 February 1987	A	Swindon	0–1	11,341
31	3 March 1987	A	Bournemouth	1–3	13,835	Slaven
32	7 March 1987	H	Bristol City	1–0	10,220	Mowbray
33	14 March 1987	A	Walsall	0–1	7,332
34	17 March 1987	H	Notts County	2–0	9,845	Stephens, Slaven
35	21 March 1987	A	Blackpool	1–0	7,132	Stephens
36	28 March 1987	H	Rotherham	0–0	9,569
37	5 April 1987	H	Darlington	1–1	11,969	Slaven
38	11 April 1987	A	Bolton	1–0	5,858	Slaven
39	18 April 1987	H	York	3–1	10,546	Ripley, Stephens, Turnbull
40	20 April 1987	A	Carlisle	1–0	5,993	Pallister
41	25 April 1987	H	Brentford	2–0	9,942	Slaven, Turnbull
42	28 April 1987	H	Gillingham	3–0	11,937	Stephens, Slaven, Turnbull
43	2 May 1987	A	Chester City	2–1	3,788	Mowbray, Hamilton
44	4 May 1987	H	Mansfield	1–0	13,543	Hamilton (pen)
45	6 May 1987	H	Wigan	0–0	18,523
46	9 May 1987	A	Doncaster	2–0	3,556	Hamilton, Ripley

Third Division

Pos	Team	Pl	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts
1.	Bournemouth	46	29	10	7	76	40	+36	97
2.	Middlesbrough	46	28	10	8	67	30	+37	94
3.	Swindon Town	46	25	12	9	77	47	+30	87
4.	Wigan Athletic	46	25	10	11	83	60	+23	85
5.	Gillingham	46	23	9	14	65	48	+17	78
6.	Bristol City	46	21	14	11	63	36	+27	77
7.	Notts County	46	21	13	12	77	56	+21	76
8.	Walsall	46	22	9	15	80	67	+13	75
9.	Blackpool	46	16	16	14	74	59	+15	64
10.	Mansfield Town	46	15	16	15	52	55	-3	61
11.	Brentford	46	15	15	16	64	66	-2	60
12.	Port Vale	46	15	12	19	76	70	+6	57
13.	Doncaster Rovers	46	14	15	17	56	62	-6	57
14.	Rotherham United	46	15	12	19	48	57	-9	57
15.	Chester City	46	13	17	16	61	59	+2	56
16.	Bury	46	14	13	19	54	60	-6	55
17.	Chesterfield	46	13	15	18	56	69	-13	54
18.	Fulham	46	12	17	17	59	77	-18	53
19.	Bristol Rovers	46	13	12	21	49	75	-26	51
20.	York City	46	12	13	21	55	79	-24	49
21.	Bolton Wanderers	46	10	15	21	46	58	-12	45
22.	Carlisle United	46	10	8	28	39	78	-39	38
23.	Darlington	46	7	16	23	45	77	-32	37
24.	Newport County	46	8	13	25	49	86	-37	37

Key
Promoted to Division Two
Qualified for the promotion/relegation playoffs
Relegated to Division Four

P = Matches played; W = Matches won; D = Matches drawn; L = Matches lost; F = Goals for; A = Goals against; GD = Goal difference; Pts = Points

League Cup

      Win       Draw       Loss

Round	Date	Venue	Opponent	Result F–A	Attendance	Boro Goalscorers
1R 1st Leg		A	Hartlepool	1–1	2,356	Slaven
1R 2nd Leg		H	Hartlepool	2–0 (3–1 agg)	7,735	Ripley, Hamilton
2R 1st Leg		H	Birmingham	2–2	9,412	Stephens, Ripley
2R 2nd Leg		A	Birmingham	2–3 (4–5 agg)	4,987	Laws (2) (1 pen)

FA Cup

Round	Date	Venue	Opponent	Result F–A	Attendance	Boro Goalscorers
1R	15 November 1986	H	Blackpool	3–0	11,205	Bernie Slaven (3)
2R	7 December 1986	A	Notts County	1–0	7,415	Hamilton
3	10 January 1987	H	Preston	0–1	15,458

Squad

Senior squad

The following are all the players who were involved the Middlesbrough F.C. first team at some point during the 1986-87 season. Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player GK Stephen Pears GK Kevin Carr DF Colin Cooper DF Ronnie Coyle (loan) DF Alan Kernaghan DF Gary Pallister MF Gary Gill MF Gary Hamilton MF Paul Kerr FW Peter Duffield FW David Hodgson (loan)

No. Position Player DF Brian Laws DF Tony Mowbray DF Gary Parkinson FW Paul Proudlock MF Stuart Ripley MF Gary Rowell FW Bernie Slaven MF Steve Spriggs (loan) FW Archie Stephens FW Lee Turnbull

Coaching staff

• Manager: Bruce Rioch
• Assistant manager: Colin Todd

Transfers

Players Out

Mitch Cook to Scarborough free

Gary Rowell to Brighton and Hove Albion free

David Currie to Darlington free

Peter Beagrie to Sheffield United £37,500 (tribunal)

Tony McAndrew to Darlington free

David Mills to Darlington free

Don O'Riordan to Grimsby Town free

Tony Hall released

Irving Nattrass retired

Players In

Paul Proudlock from South Bank £2,000

Paul Kerr from Aston Villa £35,000

Ronnie Coyle from Celtic loan

David Hodgson from Norwich City loan

Steve Spriggs from Cambridge United loan

Kevin Carr from Newcastle non contract