Erimus74 4,335 4.5k Posted January 11 Share Posted January 11 Happy birthday to, without a doubt, the best defender ever to play for the Boro in my time The late, great, Willie Maddren was born in Port Clarence on this day 1951 & what a legend, both as a player & manager As a youngster, while playing for Port Clarence, he broke his ankle just two days before he was to have a trial with Leeds United, who failed to follow up on his progress Boro's gain, a blessing in disguise He signed for the Boro, progressing through the levels & on his 18th birthday was handed the No12 shirt for our 2nd divison game away to Bristol City, replacing Frank Spraggon in the 2nd half to make his debut Later in the season, 12th April 1969 at home to Bury & after just the one sub appearence, registered No475 Willie was in the starting line up, wearing No10 shirt at home to Bury for the final home fixture of the season Unbeaten at home Boro v almost relegated Bury In the 33rd minute, the Boro won a corner, the ball was swung over with Willie heading the ball home, not long after another corner to Boro, Willie again rose high to meet the ball but, unfortuntly the ball hits the crossbar & goes over the bar, leaving a round muddy stain mark on the crossbar, typical Boro though as we lost 3-2, he mentions in his brilliant & emotional book extra time, he reported back for pre season training & smiled, the ball stain mark was still visible on the crossbar He had a fantastic telepathic relationship with Stuey Boam, IMHO, the best defence pair the club have ever had Willie played 343 games between 1968 - 1977, scoring 21 goals He scored our 2nd goal at Burnley that put us in our 1st ever league cup semi final Sadly, 3rd September 1977 was to be his final Boro appearences, in the same game as Cyril Regis & Billy Ashcroft making their debuts & at such a tender age of 26 he'd played his final game for the Boro A few turbulent years later in March 1984 big Jack came back as temp manager to successfully keep the Boro up, bringing in Willie as his No2, he left in June 1984 & recommended Willie Maddren take over the hot seat at Ayresome Park Willie took the role in June 1984 & even though he couldn't stop the slow decline of the club, he brought players to the Boro who, not only played a major part in the amazing, unforgetable seasons which followed him leaving but, when some of those players left we gained financial windfalls from their sale Just remember some of the players he brought, Bernie Slaven, Stephen Pears, Archie Stephens, Gary Pallister, Brian Laws, Gary Rowell, while giving debuts to Stuart Ripley & Colin Cooper, with his final signing been the jigsaw that moulded all the named players together into an excellent team, Bruce Rioch There were others he wanted to sign but couldn't get the deal over the line, one Neil Pointon, who was playing for Scunthorpe, later transferred to Everton The players he brought in, also blooding youngsters from within the club, he put in place fantastic foundations that made Bruce Riochs job that much easier, BR, who went on to gave us an unbelievable few seasons following WM's departure, each season as we went closer & closer to the black hole no manager was putting anything in place, just buying adequate replacements to see us through, Willie Maddren built for the future & what a job he did I could go on writing about Willie's time at the Boro RIP Willie Maddren x 4 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robin Johnson 1,256 1.8k Posted January 11 Share Posted January 11 (edited) Concur completely with this. Fantastic player, Fantastic man and had great potential to be a top manager. Absolute tragedy how life treated him and how he passed. Legend is a term loosely banded about. Those too young to witness him as a player? Frankly the term is 100% applicable in this instance Edited January 11 by Robin Johnson 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnglianRed 7,260 17.1k Posted January 11 Share Posted January 11 (edited) Well before my time but a lovely tribute there @Erimus74 👍 Sounds like one of those rare cases where a club and player / manager just really clicked. Also sounds like he had a real eye for talent. How Boro could do with someone like him now. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redcar Rioja 7,806 7.6k Posted January 11 Share Posted January 11 1 hour ago, AnglianRed said: Well before my time but a lovely tribute there @Erimus74 👍 Sounds like one of those rare cases where a club and player / manager just really clicked. Also sounds like he had a real eye for talent. How Boro could do with someone like him now. I've often felt there were parallels between him and Mogga. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Codger 3,841 4.5k Posted January 11 Share Posted January 11 One of the few people that I have never heard a bad word said against. The world would be a better place with more Willies 🙂 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hammy legend 1,132 1.2k Posted January 11 Share Posted January 11 Maddren was a truly great player and a very unlucky manager, he also wanted to sign Pointon who went to Everton. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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