Middlesbrough player records that will be broken?

[indeedido]

Absolutely no chance of that then. Was that top flight?
What is say, the top 5 or 10 LEAGUE goalscorers? Do you know? I've had a look online but dont trust many stat websites as they seem to have different stats.

We have a class list of top scorers. I just look at League here.
1. George Camsell 325 in 418 league matches across the 14 seasons up until WW2. 233 of his goals were in the top flight.18 goals in 9 matches for England too and only 5 foot 6 tall! Durham lad.
2. George Elliott 203 in 344 league matches 1909-25. He would have bagged another 100 plus if not for WW1 and may even have troubled Camsell. Another striker only 5 foot 9 and all but a handful of appearances in the top flight. Would definitely have got more top flight goals than Camsell. A Sunderland/County Durham lad.
3. Brian Clough 197 in 213 league matches, in basically 5 seasons, all second tier. Our most prolific scorer in terms of goals per game by a mile. 5 foot 10 inch Yorkshire lad from Boro.
4. John Hickton 159 in 415 league matches. 38 goals in the top flight - when older, less prolific. Derbyshire lad. 6 foot.
5. Micky Fenton 147 from 240 league matches all in the top flight mainly from 1935 to just after the war. His career even more stunted than Elliott by war and WW2. Arguably robbed of 150 more by that war and a possible Boro title. Picked up exactly where Camsell finished.
6. Alan Peacock 125 from 218 league matches all in second tier across 7 seasons, playing alongside Clough in his 5 seasons. Unbelievable pairing. England international while at Boro, made his debut in 62 World Cup, scoring. Another Yorkshire lad from Boro. Imagine having two Boro born strikers playing in the same team and scoring 60 a season between them and still not going up!
7. Bernie Slaven 118 from 307 league matches across 8 seasons from 1986. 19 in 55 top tier appearances. 5 goot 10 Paisley lad. 6th top scorer overall with 146 including Cups.

So that is 7 over 100 league goals.
It's clear we have always had a prolific scorer at some point in every decade until this century.
Incredibly 5 of those 7 heroes were from within 30 miles of Middlesbrough.

 

[Glover_elbow]

First wembley win. May 2023 Middlesbrough 5 Sunderland 0

 

[Cecil J McTumshie]

Goal scorers are over rated.. just the ones that make the ball go over a painted line..

1 second out of a 5400 seconds.. just daft.

Giles and Barlaser aren’t racking up misplaced shots and headers.. golden boots served up on a plate.

Hackney got an assist for Ackpom’s first goal on Saturday-all he did was pass the ball 5 yards

 

[MVBoro]

Those 'war years' goal scoring records are incredible. Games must have had about 8 or more goals scored regularly in those years. Do you think people just didn't defend in that period of time and defensive side of the game just got better over time?
I wonder how many caps Downing got for England whilst at Boro. I guess if we had a regular international now coming through, they would leave for a 'bigger' club pretty quickly.

 

[festa5]

Those 'war years' goal scoring records are incredible. Games must have had about 8 or more goals scored regularly in those years. Do you think people just didn't defend in that period of time and defensive side of the game just got better over time?
I wonder how many caps Downing got for England whilst at Boro. I guess if we had a regular international now coming through, they would leave for a 'bigger' club pretty quickly.

I'm not sure when it changed but I think they used to play 5 up front, 3 in midfield and 2 defenders (full backs) didn't they?

Not sure when the offside law was introduced either.

 

[Corcaigh_the_Cat]

I'm not sure when it changed but I think they used to play 5 up front, 3 in midfield and 2 defenders (full backs) didn't they?

Not sure when the offside law was introduced either.

Two wingers and a centre forward supported by two attacking inside forwards. The defence was two full backs and a centre half, protected by two half backs.

So 3-4-3 with two attacking midfielders and two defensive midfielders. No tracking back and no overlapping until much later.

 

[Anton_Berg]

Oldest outfield player.

Would that be Bryan Robson or Camsell?

 

[Ipad1977]

Championship top scorer
Most assists
Wins in a row
Most points in a season..

Points in a season you'd like to think would be likely at some point, though if a win counted for 3 points in Charlton's Champions season this would have been a lot less likely.

 

[Trug]

Two wingers and a centre forward supported by two attacking inside forwards. The defence was two full backs and a centre half, protected by two half backs.

So 3-4-3 with two attacking midfielders and two defensive midfielders. No tracking back and no overlapping until much later.

The system was two full backs, midfield was two half backs and a centre half, the forward line was two wingers, two i9nside forwards and one centre half. So the system was 2-3-5. This all changed with Alf Ramsey's "wingless wonders". No substitutes until the 1960's. The offside law was much harder too with three players required to be between the furthest forward attacker and the goal-and that was anywhere in the defending half of the pitch- none of this "interfering" with play rubbish. I think it was changed to two players in the 1950's but not sure. Goal keepers were allowed to be shoulder charged: many a goal had been scored by bundling the keeper across the line with a shoulder.

 

[Ipad1977]

There's always George's international goal ratio of 2 goals per game. 18 goals in 9 games.
No one is ever going to better that!

Pity he didn't play for us during his brief England career (was at Preston at the time I think) when he got the record, but David Nugent's goals per minute in internationals is unlikely to be broken any time soon...

 

[Corcaigh_the_Cat]

The system was two full backs, midfield was two half backs and a centre half, the forward line was two wingers, two i9nside forwards and one centre half. So the system was 2-3-5. This all changed with Alf Ramsey's "wingless wonders". No substitutes until the 1960's. The offside law was much harder too with three players required to be between the furthest forward attacker and the goal-and that was anywhere in the defending half of the pitch- none of this "interfering" with play rubbish. I think it was changed to two players in the 1950's but not sure. Goal keepers were allowed to be shoulder charged: many a goal had been scored by bundling the keeper across the line with a shoulder.

I was watching before Alf Ramsey, the centre half was the main man at the back. I think it was Mel Nurse when I started watching.

It may have been different before that but that was certainly the case pre Ramsey, and I'm sure the WM formation had been used for quite a while before the 'wingless wonders' had us mimicking the continent.

 

[jonny_greenings_sock]

Most decorated player?

That’s currently Valdes isn’t it, surely.

Highest cumulative transfer fees? I’d guess that was Mendieta, but fees nowadays you could probably break that with some **** like Alex Iwobi

 

[BoroMart]

I was watching before Alf Ramsey, the centre half was the main man at the back. I think it was Mel Nurse when I started watching.

It may have been different before that but that was certainly the case pre Ramsey, and I'm sure the WM formation had been used for quite a while before the 'wingless wonders' had us mimicking the continent.

The history of football formations and tactics is well documented in inverting the pyramid, a decent read if your into footy history

 

[Liamo]

Not sure when the offside law was introduced either.

The offside law has always been part of the game ever since written rulesets were introduced. It was in all the precursors to the FA laws (Cambridge, Sheffield, Uppingham, Eton, Harrow etc)
and was included in first set of laws issued by the newly-formed Football Association in 1863.

The offside law was much harder too with three players required to be between the furthest forward attacker and the goal-and that was anywhere in the defending half of the pitch- none of this "interfering" with play rubbish. I think it was changed to two players in the 1950's but not sure.

You're way out on your dates there - the change from three to two defenders came in 1925.

Also, the offside law has always required that a player be involved in play before being penalized. Even in the first set of laws (1863, as mentioned above) a player in an offside position was only to be penalized if he were to "touch the ball himself [or] in any way whatever prevent any other player from doing so."

As to later dates, including during the 1950’s, the IFAB issued repeated reminders that it was not an offence simply to be in an offside position, and that a player had to be actively involved in play somehow, to be guilty of an offside offence.

For instance, the following wording was included in the Laws document in 1920: ''Play should not be stopped and a player given off-side [...] because the player is in an off-side position. A breach of the Law is only committed when a player who is in an offside position interferes with an opponent or with the play.''

And in the period you're talking about (the 50's and 60's) the same kinds of reminders were issued. In 1956 for example, Law XI International Board Decision (IBD) 1 was issued, stating that a player who was in an offside position should not be penalised if it was clear to the referee ''that he is not interfering with play.''