Mogga Mania Is An Echo of 1986
TONY, TONY Mowbray! Tony, Tony Mowbray! It is bizarre but some of the most blinkered, passionately parochial and unforgiving Boro fans I know are planning to chant the name of the opposition manager with real affection, respect and pride tomorrow .
Such goodwill is unnerving and a quite clear breech of all known football supporting protocols. Returning heroes normally get a polite ripple of applause when their name is read out, maybe a nostalgic half-hearted name check from Block 17 and then the whistle blows and normal service resumes as niceties go out the window and war is declared.
But Mogga is different.
No one comes close to Mogga's position in the mental universe of Boro fans. He personified on the pitch the sheer determination shared by the fans, the Gibson consortium and Bruce Rioch that this club WOULD survive in 1986. Red hot passion, white hot steel. Mogga was 100% Boro and his pride in playing for the club was a key element in his power to inspire. And inspire not only the team of young Teessiders around him but also the galvanised Holgate.
He was not to prove the best player in the legendary squad that trained on when the club slipped towards liquidation then played its way with zest and incredible belief to a football fairytale of successive promotions back to the top flight and a first ever trip to Wembley. Gary Pallister was the one who went on to collect championship medals and England caps galore, Brian Laws moved to Forest to get his share of gongs and Colin Cooper played for England. Rippers won a title medal. Bernie met the pope. Even Alan Kernaghan went to the World Cup.
But Mogga is the one that attained iconic demi-god status. He was a good player, a great leader and an industrious and committed defender who scored his share of goals but it goes beyond that. Mogga is the one who the crowd identified with: a worker, a battler, a gritty never-say-die, bleed-for-Boro supporter transported to the pitch as a cypher for us all.
He crystalised the rejuvenation and powerful sense of unity and purpose as the club clawed away from abyss of liquidation, a moment in history wired forever into the collective psyche of Boro fans in the same way that Juninho crystalised the explosive possibility and expanded horizons of the move to the Riverside.
That is why the Boro fanzine Fly Me To The Moon, named in honour of a Bruce Rioch quote about his loyal lieutenant is making tomorrow's fanzine a Mogga special.
And why despite 16 years since his departure and a quantum leap forward into the big time for Boro - Europe was unthinkable when he was at Ayresome - Boro fans can still pay such sincere homage to the man as Chris Hill did on Football365 this week.
And he feels it too. For most players - yes, even the 'local lads' - football is a profession rather than a passion and it requites and objective distance from anything as quaint or distracting as supporting your team. Sometimes slip service is paid in some trite comment about "the fans beinga bit specia" or a crass act of badge-kissing but it is rarely believable. But when Tony Mowbray speaks about Boro you know he means it.
He was honest and brave as he risked a Baggies backlash as he told a press conference at West Brom this week: "Middlesbrough are my team. It is where I was born and bred and brought up and I watched them for the formative years of my life.
"I played there for 12 years, captained them through liquidation and promotion to the top division and walked them out at Wembley in a cup final against Chelsea - the ZDS Trophy in 1988. I had some great days there. You don't erase those memories."
There has been some heated debate over the past few days comparing Mogga with Southgate, discussing the morality of chanting the name of an opposing manager who is plotting the team's downfall, and of course the simmering sub-text that many Boro fans championed Mowbray as manager ahead of Gareth in the summer, a factor that could make defeat a political banana skin.
In purely footballing terms there is no comparison. Southgate has played a World Cups, led Boro through a golden age, lifted the Carling Cup and Cardiff and wore the armband in the UEFA Cup final. It's all a long way from scrapping out a draw with Port Vale in a borrowed ground.
But it is not about football. It is about history, and symbolism, and the mystical bond between fans and players that only very rarely in a club's history becomes almost tangible.
Mogga is revered because he is one of us and because he more than anyone is a symbol of what we did back then. The Class of 86 were deservedly celebrated earlier this season to underline exactly how far we have come. What has been done - survival against the odds, rebuilding, barging onto the top table, winning a trophy and rebranding as a well stewarded club with ambition - has been built on the foundations laid back in those incredible years of endeavour and unquenchable spirit, qualities that Tony Mowbray showed in spades.
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Anthony Vickers
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Will people be chanting Steve McClarens name when he returns ?
**AV writes: No, most of them will be booing.
Vic
Just so as we win 3-0 and he goes back to the West Midlands, put in his (current) place, knowing his ambition is to manage Boro, a bigger, better club than the one he's at.
AV:
I enjoyed reading that, it really shows how far we have come as a football club.
I will applaud Mogga but will not be singing his name.
John:
Thats the spirit, get ready to enjoy a 4 - 1 victory, and then being drawn at home to Fulham in the quater finals.
C'Mon Boro!
And brilliant pictures too.
I remember working with a Chesterfield fan when I moved to the Derby area and he memorably nicknamed us the 'Quiffs' because the whole team were Bernied.
Spoke to Pally at the FA Cup semi about and apparently he was the only blond in the village, all the rest resorted to the bottle.
I was abroad at the team of our resurrection (the valleys of Wales) and traveled over to Swindon where we lost 1-0. Played some good stuff but never mind.
Got relatives so can't get up, got into severe trouble last time they came and I disappeared off to Reading.
Lets finish it first time, a trip to the Hawthorns with my Baggie mate whilst another chance to see the Boro would be a fraught experience.
Great picture of Mogga scoring with a flying header. If I'm correct it was in the match against Villa. Two nil down and that goal made it 3-2 to us fantastic. Unfortunately McAnnallie scored again for the Villa (who only had 10 men as I think Keown, pictured was sent off).
Great days though. Wrote up to the Boro years ago (to Mogga) for some photo's for my 2 lads, he sent down a hat full. Lovely fella. Still, hope we win tomorrow.
Boing Boing Boing,
I hope we all get to watch a classic cup tie (with the Baggies triumphant). Mogga is slowly building a decent Albion team that plays fast attacking football.
All the best for the rest of the season (after Saturday)
AV, great article, as usual.
I was fifteen when the club almost folded, and I'll never forget the fairytale that was the next few years.
Mogga personified the grit and determination that became the Boro hallmark under Rioch. I wish him nothing but the best, and I think I'd be chanting his name too..if I could be (sniff) at the Riverside. I just hope he and his team receive a good hiding on Saturday.
By the way...small confession to make here. As a very young kid, I supported West Brom as a "second team" because I loved their kit! I owned both the home and away kit, and I think my parents have old video footage of me doing kick-ups in the green and yellow kit.
Thank God, they haven't heard of You Tube.
I dread to think what Boro fans will chant and think if WBA knock us out.
Mowbray was a great man at the the time, but now the club is totally different era, different stadium, full of big name players, flash cars (no xr3i). Southgate is the future not mogga
Did Mogga score in any of those Everton cup games?
I remember his 30 yard bullet against norwich at the begining of the season
**AV writes: Mogga got a last minute leveller at home to Everton in the 4th rd first replay at Ayresome in 1987-88. Kerny scored in extra time but they equalised then won the second replay back at Goodison.
Just what I like ! Pride to come before a fall.
some different memories of mogga i remember was his own goal after robert lee chipped pears and it went in off moggas thigh after hitting the post. and mogga trying to attempt to win headers agianst ormondroid at bradford. I remember him getting skinned a few times by pacey forwards.
he was the right man at the right time for the club but these days he would struggle.
Tony Tony Mowbray. I believe Mogga will want to see boro in the final. No doubt he'll have VIP tickets if or when we get there. His team will put up a good fight. They will have to fight as the fans will want a fight but when boro win I dont think mogga will be that upset.
Shame on anyone who doesn't chant Mogga's name at the match on Saturday...before kick off, and Gareth Southgate's after when we've beaten them.
Mogga transcends any one off game, and showing him the respect he deserves has nowt to do with how we feel about Southgate.
He is a legend here in his own right, and he would expect nothing less than for the fans to show Mogga their appreciation. Without the team Mogga led so magnificently (yep, THAT'S what magnificent means) there would be no MFC.
Now let's beat him and get through to the quarters.
Sorry to burst your bubbles lads, but Mogga is saving our club now by playing the best football I've seen down at the Hawthorns for a couple of decades and more.
He strikes me as a loyal and principled bloke and no-one will be getting their hands on him until some fool at our place decide he aint up to it. He's going nowhere.
They should chant his name,it's commemorating a time,not Tony Mobray the manager but all before the game. And maybe a bit of magmanimous chanting afterwards.
Fat Frank,I belive the game was Aston Villa but that was mogga getting the winner in a 2-1 victory live on tv on a sunday a fews days after scoring a own goal to give Everton victory in the F.A cup in the old 2nd division,the only live game shown in that division,phew.
The legend that is Tony Mowbray may be doing good things at WBA, however Gareth Southgate is not doing a bad job at the Boro.
Hopefully it will be a good match and after Boro have won 4 - 1, the baggies supporters at least can console themselves with the prospect of visiting the Riverside again next season as a PL outfit.
C'Mon Boro!
The curse of Hurworth strikes again - amongst all the good news about who is fit and getting fitter on the club website this afternoon there is is the news that Simba won't be considered for tomorrow because he missed some training due to a thigh injury picked up in training!
Huth is back in training, apparently, so let's hope that all the rest MISSED his HOP TOE in the 5-a-side eh, Never Happy.
Tony Mowbray IS Middlesbrough Football Club.
By the way, is it just me or is the third photo down strangely similar to Michaelangelo's 'Hands of God and Adam' fresco in the Sistine Chapel?
Mogga was indeed the main character in the Genesis of our beloved, post liquidation Boro (although he was sold on rather than banishised. And he never committed any sins... anyway)
All the best for the future Tony (after Saturday).
Tony Mowbray deserves the moment of adulation he will receive. Its a completely seperate issue to who wins the match. Personally I think Mogga being there will raise the crowd, create an intense atmosphere and improve our chances of winning.
Wow! I'd read that Mogga was a legend on Teesside, but this article and these responses have really hammered the message home.
Now I don't really care who wins tomorrow, Boro or Albion. I just hope it's a fantastic match 4-4 will do! Come on Mogga's Boys (whoever they might really be, show 'em how footie should be played.
NJ
Baggies fan.
Boro fans are deluded...... big club? Do me a favour. Mowbray is a top man and no doubt Albion will win tomorrow. Be nice to see a crowd at the Riverside rather than the usual bank of empty red seats. Any danger of an atmosphere when you welcome Mogga back?
As AV states he was and is typical of the area, no fuss, not flash and loyal to the club. He and we know he was not the most skilfull player ever, but he was never less than 100% committed. That he has taken everywhere he has gone which is why the other clubs fans like the man as well.
I will be chanting his name, as he helped save the club I love. Then I'll be chanting for Southgate just as loud as he is taking us on. It is the opportunity for us to thank him properly for all he did.
I'll chant his name! I remember the lads training unpaid at Stewarts park. I remember going to Hartlepool to watch the games. I remember going down to Chelsea in the play-offs, endless trips down to goodison to watch cup replays being gobbed on (and worse) by the scousers in the tier above, being red hot at Barnsley.
I remember all that and laugh to myself. It was a crack to go to the match back then on the 95 bus. The Riverside has no atmosphere and no crack. All seater stadia have killed the game and I remember Mogga with a great fondness.
He personifies happier times and I will definately be chanting his name and giving him the best reception I can. I'm can't knock Southgate - but I wish we had Mowbray.
so how did the big match with mogga live upto all the expectations. Was disapointed that he didnt do the gentleman thing and allow boro to win
As I feared a trip to the Baggies next week. Mogga ahead on points at this stage but we live to fight another day.
Prediction wrong again, never mind we know Boro do like a replay.
John:
I feared for the Lion King when after we signed him GS said he was a naturally fit boy and was not far from being fit enough to play.
However I then read Boteng saying that the Lion King was Knackered after playing two minutes of five a side.
It will all look better when we are drawn at home to Plymouth and warm up for the replay win with a 3 - 1 against Reading
C'Mon Boro!
I now fear the worst in the FA Cup draw after seeing that MaClaren is involved.
On another subject, I would like to pass on my congratulations to Chelsea on reducing last season's losses to 80 million quid.
So that's just £220m in losses over the last two seasons.
So those of you out there who are looking for the club to find us a benefactor that can take us to the next level, you will need to explain to them first that they need to accept an annual loss of 100 million quid per season to prehaps give us a chance of Champions League football.
I think this sort of rules most investors out.
Hop Toe
How do you feel now that it's ManUre - if we get past the Baggies! Is it back to Never Happy?
John
I was just thinking about that and then read your post.
Its OK being optimistic but its seems everything starts to go pear shaped as soon as you let other people know.
Man U may struggle to beat Reading now that the CL is back, eithier way its matters not a jot as Boro are on the road to Wembley.
C'Mon Boro!
Hop Toe
Well, there's something of a route through for someone with Plymouth playing Watford. If we get past The Baggies and ManUre and then get them in the semi we could find ourselves in the same position as last year - a guaranteed UEFA place if we win the semi.
Then all we have to do is not have a no-show like Villa Park last season.
There's an awful lot of ifs in there but here's another one - 'if your names on it....'
I'm still keen - leaving Fantasy Island for a moment - that we nail our Prem position soonest. Don't want any chance of a repeat of the trip to Wembley, get relegated combo. If I thought that's where we were going I'd strongly suggest sending the Academy kids to The Baggies next week.
I still think that this weekend's fixtures overall and our showing against Reading is the key to the rest of the season.
**AV writes: John mate, the chances of Boro getting relegated now are so slim that they are only worthy of serious discussion by NASA numbercrunchers and egg-heads working on theoretical mathematics.
Well said AV.
John
Charlton will beat West Ham this weekend and that will be it for the Hammers.
Boro will beat Reading and then the Baggies.
Boro will end the seaon with at least 46 points.
Dear Gung-ho and Hop Toe
I do hope you're both right (except I think I may prefer a Hammers/Addicks draw - disappoint both - with several more injuries sustained)
I prefer to wait and see until after Saturday.
Let's hope you chaps aren't getting your rocket science text books out!