THE latest part of our Up The Boro series, focussing on some of the club's most memorable promotion seasons, takes us back to 1987/88.

THE STORY OF THE SEASON

The summer of 1986 had brought with it relegation to the old third division and much worse, liquidation.

But Boro reformed, regrouped, were saved and won promotion at the first time of asking and it was the majority of that squad that was to carry on the good work as they were promoted for a second successive campaign.

Bernie Slaven, above, led the way in the goalscoring stakes, scoring two of the three hat-tricks registered by Boro players. Stuart Ripley scored the other during a purple patch towards the end of the season that saw the winger score six in six.

Goals, though, came from all over, with Gary Hamilton and Paul Kerr contributing seven and five respectively from midfield, Gary Pallister and Tony Mowbray weighed in with three apiece and Dean Glover scored four from defence and midfield.

Alan Kernaghan, who could play in attack or defence, scored six, with even full-backs Brian Laws and Colin Cooper finding the back of the net.

But it was two runs of games where goals were not conceded that were just as important.

Five clean sheets in September was followed by another of seven from  November to December as Boro went on to record 22 shut-outs - exactly half their games.

Despite that impressive record, defeat at home to Leicester in the final game of the season meant Boro had finished outside an automatic promotion spot and they had to qualify through the play-offs.

Bradford City had done the double over them in the regular season and won the opening leg of the play-off semi-final.

But a 2-0 win at Ayresome with goals from Slaven and Hamilton took Boro to a two-legged final with Chelsea.

A 2-0 win at Ayresome in the first leg was just enough as Boro lost 1-0 at Stamford Bridge in the return and swapped places with the West London club.
THE STATISTICS

Final position: 3rd (promoted via play-offs)
Top scorer: Bernie Slaven (21)
Key player: Tony Mowbray, the man Bruce Rioch would famously have wanted beside him if he were on a rocket to the moon.  
Biggest win: 6-0 home v Sheffield United, April 2
Number of clean sheets: 22
Points after first 10 games: 17
Key game: The second leg of the final of the play-offs at Stamford Bridge.
Highest attendance: 27,645 v Leicester City, May 7. Lost 2-1
Average attendance: 14,528

Regular line-up: 1 Pears, 2 Glover, 3 Cooper, 4 Mowbray, 5 Parkinson, 6 Pallister, 7 Slaven, 8 Kernaghan, 9 Hamilton, 10 Kerr, 11 Ripley.
Notable others: Gill, Stephens, Proudlock, Laws, Burke, Poole, Senior.