There’s only one F in Fulham
The Fulham Fanzine 2019-20 Championship Season
Preview from the pre-match Home Page
December 1924 was our first meeting
Before this current game We've lost two, drawn three and won three
billp TOOFIF Updated Saturday, 4 January 2020
FFC 0 v Middlesborough 0 JAN 17 2020
We need to win this
and every home match, it's also about time we won more away… obviously!
billp TOOFIF Saturday, 4 January 2020
Images
Our first ever game against Middlesborough took place aon December 1 1924 at Craven Cottage in the old League Division Two, it ended in a 0-0 draw.
Exactly as the last game had ended this season , that away fixture only being distinguished by the sending off of our 'keeper..
In our joint histories, there have been 66 competitive games between us with Boro winning 29 to our 25, the remaining 12 being draws.
Match Information
from FFC online
Competition: Sky Bet Championship
Date: Saturday 26 October 2019
Kick-off: 3:00pm
Venue: Riverside Stadium, Middlesbrough
Attendance: 19,101
Referee: Peter Bankes
Middlesbrough
Line-up: Pears; McNair, Ayala, Fry; Howson, Tavernier, Wing, Saville (Browne 64'), Coulson (Johnson 68'); Assombalonga, Fletcher
Unused substitutes: Tomás Mejías, Bola, Dijksteel, Clayton, Liddle
Manager: Jonathan Woodgate
Fulham
Line-up: Rodák; Odoi, Mawson, Ream, Bryan; Onomah (Bettinelli 19'), Reed, Cairney; Cavaleiro (Le Marchand 84'), Aleksandar Mitrovic, De Cordova-Reid (Knockaert 81')
Unused substitutes: Steven Sessegnon, McDonald, Johansen, Kamara
Manager: Scott Parker
We last played the Smoggies on October 26 2019 away at the Riverside, where 10 man Fulham held out for a 0-0 draw.
Archibald Leitch
Master football stadium designer
Our clubs have a unique link in common in that the same Architect was responsible for designing our home grounds, although Middlesboro have long since vacated Ayresome Park for the Riverside, Archibal Leitch designed their then new stadium.
This pragmatic Scotman was the Richard Rogers or Norman Foster of his day as far as Football stadia were concerned being the man behind many grounds in England.
these included such clubs as Manchester United, Liverpool, Everton, Blackburn, Tottenham, Arsenal, Chelsea, Fulham, Crystal Palace, Millwall, Charlton, Southampton, Portsmouth, Aston Villa, Wolves, Derby, Sunderland, Middlesbrough, Huddersfield, both Sheffield clubs and both Bradford clubs (City and Bradford Park Avenue)
In 1901, much of the Ayresome Grange Estate, which included Middlesbrough Ironopolis’s old Paradise Ground, was drained to make way for a new ground in keeping with Boro’s growing stature.
The plans initially included a training pitch and a playing surface for the club’s reserve side. The architect was the famous Archibald Leitch of Glasgow and the cost was to be an enormous £10,438.16.
The centrepiece of Leitch’s Ayresome was the impressive North Stand with its barrel roof. Opposite stood a stand that was familiar to seasoned Boro home followers.
The main grandstand at Linthorpe Road was dismantled, transported to the new ground, and re-erected as the new South Stand. There it stood until 1937, when Dorman Long and Co were commissioned to build a replacement South Stand, which remained for the rest of the ground’s life.
Photographs from inside the old Linthorpe Road ground are rarely seen, in fact they are non-existent. Featured here is the next best thing during a game at Ayresome versus Liverpool in either 1914 or 1915. Liverpool were playing in their away kit of red and white stripes and shows Boro striker Walter Tinsley coming up against legendary Pool goalkeeper Elisha Scott and defender Sam Speakman.
For once the star of the photograph is in the background with old / new South Stand in all its glory. One mystery is that it was always reported that the stand was only 50 foot long. Either the camera angles of the day were misleading but the enclosure looks a little bigger than that.
Another point of interest is an early example of sponsorship in football. Boro had a director called Otto Winterschladen who’s family famously had a number of off-licenses in the Teesside area. The firm’s name is seen proudly displayed on the South Stand roof.
In the latter years of Ayresome Park, this tradition re-appeared, in particular when club sponsors Heritage Hampers was adorned on the North Stand roof in 1988, and even made the Guinness Book of Record as the largest advertising board in sport.
