January 1978 - Craig Johnston made his Boro debut

Erimus74

Erimus74

Well-known member
After watching big Jacks Boro on an Australian tour from his hospital bed in Australian bed Craig decided there & then that was the career for him & after recovering from his stay in hospital told his parents of his plans to travel to the UK to become a professional footballewr
Craig scrimped & saved & a big help from his parents found the money he needed to travel to the UK hoping to make it as a professional footballer, when he arrived he couldnt have felt more unwelcome & after some unsavoury comments from big Jack Craig he was determined to prove his doubters wrong & that he had what it takes to go to the very top, he certainly did & his story to get from arriving in the UK to his 1st Boro outing & a glamorous FAC tie at home to Everton is a must hear on his podcast, it really is

Boro manager John neal had seen enough of Craig in training & reserve outtings to hand him the No10 shirt for his debut, when he replaced Tony McAndrew,

The Everton cup tie was our reward after knocking out Coventry 3-0 in the 3rd round

Having hid from big Jack during his day's as Boro manager to the arrival of John Neal, he trained hard, on his own for a big part of that time, then when he got his break in the reserves he was focused on showing JN what his game was about, on this day all his hard work had paid dividends

John Neal gave Craig his debut, wearing the No10 shirt in place of Tony McAndrew

Boro won this game 3-2 with goals from John Mahoney his 1st Boro goal & a brace from David Mills, his 11th goal of the season & 10th FAC goal
Boro went in to a 3-0 lead, Everton brought on Duncan McKenzie & at the end we were hanging on for victory, but we did & went in to the hat for the 5th round

This victory brought sweet revenge as Everton knocked out the mighty Boro 2-1 at Ayresome Park, with the help of one of the best opposition goalkeeping performances I have ever witnessed at AP

John Neals team

Jim Platt
John Craggs
Ian Bailey
John Mahoney
Stuey Boam
Alan Ramage
David Mills
Stan Cummins
Billy Ashcroft
Craig Johnston
David Armstrong

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Erimus74 said:
After watching big Jacks Boro on an Australian tour from his hospital bed in Australian bed Craig decided there & then that was the career for him & after recovering from his stay in hospital told his parents of his plans to travel to the UK to become a professional footballewr
Craig scrimped & saved & a big help from his parents found the money he needed to travel to the UK hoping to make it as a professional footballer, when he arrived he couldnt have felt more unwelcome & after some unsavoury comments from big Jack Craig he was determined to prove his doubters wrong & that he had what it takes to go to the very top, he certainly did & his story to get from arriving in the UK to his 1st Boro outing & a glamorous FAC tie at home to Everton is a must hear on his podcast, it really is

Boro manager John neal had seen enough of Craig in training & reserve outtings to hand him the No10 shirt for his debut, when he replaced Tony McAndrew,

The Everton cup tie was our reward after knocking out Coventry 3-0 in the 3rd round

Having hid from big Jack during his day's as Boro manager to the arrival of John Neal, he trained hard, on his own for a big part of that time, then when he got his break in the reserves he was focused on showing JN what his game was about, on this day all his hard work had paid dividends

John Neal gave Craig his debut, wearing the No10 shirt in place of Tony McAndrew

Boro won this game 3-2 with goals from John Mahoney his 1st Boro goal & a brace from David Mills, his 11th goal of the season & 10th FAC goal
Boro went in to a 3-0 lead, Everton brought on Duncan McKenzie & at the end we were hanging on for victory, but we did & went in to the hat for the 5th round

This victory brought sweet revenge as Everton knocked out the mighty Boro 2-1 at Ayresome Park, with the help of one of the best opposition goalkeeping performances I have ever witnessed at AP

John Neals team

Jim Platt
John Craggs
Ian Bailey
John Mahoney
Stuey Boam
Alan Ramage
David Mills
Stan Cummins
Billy Ashcroft
Craig Johnston
David Armstrong

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Crackin player - knocked on our door and wouldnt go away till he got a trial and signed.
Alongside, Spike, Hodgy an Terry, Ian Bailey - (y)
 
He became better known later as a football boot entrepreneur than a sports journalist. Great story that deserves to be made into a film. Washed cars to raise money for his airfare over to England for his trial.
 
Johnston's debut was well publicised. The papers that week were full of his exploits in Jersey winter training. He'd gone off 'to explore the coastline', got cut off by the tide. and had to swim back.
 
What a great player he was and a back story that would have made a good film. He made a great living after his playing days were over too.

If only we hadn't sold the family jewels 😢
 
Craig Johnston's 1st Boro goal came in a 2-1 defeat came in our final home game of the 77-78 season v West Ham which was also club legend John Hicktons final appearence in a Boro 1st team game

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