City History | Bluebirds claim Boro scalp in 1994
As the Bluebirds prepare to take on Middlesbrough in the Sky Bet Championship this weekend, we take a look back at a famous battle between the two sides.
If you think of our past Cup clashes with Boro, the 2008 Quarter Final springs to mind - check out tomorrow's edition of The Bluebird to read more about that match! Yet, another contest between the two sides also stands out for a number of reasons.
In the 1993/94 campaign, City drew Boro in the Third Round of the FA Cup, which proved to be the 47th and 48th meetings between the two clubs.
At the time, Middlesbrough were competing in the First Division, having been relegated from the Premier League in the year prior, while City were in the Second Division, with 27 places separating the two sides at the time of the match at Ninian Park on January 8th.
Lennie in the dugout
Middlesbrough were then managed by Lennie Lawrence. Little did City fans know at the time of the fixture that the man in the opposition dugout would later become an even more familiar name.
During his three-year stay with the North Yorkshire outfit, he amassed a respectable 75 wins from 187 matches in charge, with a win percentage of 40.10%.
Later in his managerial career, Lennie went on to take on the helm in the Welsh capital, managing the Bluebirds between February 2002 and May 2005.
His first full season at City saw him guide the club to promotion from the Second Division in a memorable Play-Off Final against Queens Park Rangers in the Welsh capital.
Lawrence put a platform in place over in the campaigns that followed, with 13th and 16th placed finishes, whilst building the makings of a very strong City side.
Replay secured
The aforementioned gulf in league position between City and Boro could have proven to be a daunting task for the Bluebirds, but not when you look at the past record.
Despite not having met for nearly a decade, with the previous meeting coming in February 1985, the Bluebirds had won 22 and drawn ten of the 46 historical matches between the two sides, with Boro claiming victory on 14 occasions.
In front of 13,750 fans at Ninian Park, the FA Cup clash proved to be a thriller, with both sides eager to progress.
Attackers Phil Stant and Garry Thompson were on the scoresheet for the Bluebirds that day, but goals from Paul Wilkinson and Alan Moore for Boro meant the contest had to be settled in a replay at Ayresome Park 11 days later.
A future City skipper
Another aspect to the FA Cup tie that would later prove significant was the presence of a certain Graham Kavanagh in the Middlesbrough side.
The midfielder made the move to Boro in 1991 from Home Farm, taking his first steps into the English football pyramid.
With a five-year spell at Stoke City in between, Kav then became a Bluebird in 2001 and would soon reunite with his former boss Lawrence for a successful spell.
Yet, seven years prior to joining City, he and his Boro teammates hosted the replay at Ayresome Park, with 10,769 fans in attendance.
Kav showed his quality that day by finding the net for the hosts, talent that we would later come to see in a City shirt.
A story of prolific attackers
After his goal at Ninian Park in the first match, Stant again proved to be a thorn in Boro’s side, as he netted for City, heading home unmarked from Derek Brazil's cross.
The Bluebirds looked like they were heading for the Fourth Round, only for Kavanagh to score with a neat finish on the turn to send the tie into extra time.
Boro almost found themselves a winner, but a great save from Mark Grew, combined with a dubious goal-line clearance by Mark Aizlewood, kept the score at 1-1.
The decisive moment came from Cardiff-born striker Nathan Blake, who met Tony Bird's header and fired past Middlesbrough's keeper, Stephen Pears.
The drama didn't end there, as both sides finished the contest with 10 men. Boro's Jamie Pollock clashed with Garry Thompson, and the two players were dismissed by the referee.
The replay ended in a 2-1 victory for City, who knocked out a side from the league above to progress in the competition in memorable fashion, and set up a famous Fourth Round tie with Manchester City, a game in which Blake proved to be the hero once again...
