Match of the Day - Week 23

Our Week 23 fixture is Middlesbrough v West Brom.

Match of the Day comes from Ayresome Park in February 1991, when both sides were languishing in League Division 2.

Yes, it's a five-goal thriller, the winner is an 87th minute howler from the West Brom goalie and where, in this era of compulsory under-soil heating do you ever see snow piled behind the goals?

But our eyes are drawn inexorably to the narrow, cool-as, stanchions holding up the goal nets. Guys on Twitter told me the stanchions at one end of the ground are narrower than at the other; check them out.

World Cups - England 1966

Considering England were awarded the 1966 finals for forming the FA a hundred years before; that their side became champions with no-wingers and a formation that firmly turned its back on Hungary and the lessons of '53; and most importantly that the goalnets were hung on stanchions as English as World Cup Willie then the '66 finals could be seen as the empire's last hurrah.

But with journalists from a greater diversity of countries than ever before attending the tournament, the matches broadcast live to the world for the first time and these Continental D's supporting the nets at Hillsborough, Sheffield -



 the 1966 finals could as easily be seen as the first of the modern tournaments.

Games for the 1966 finals were held at seven other venues, including:

Wembley

Goodison Park

White City Stadium, London - used only because Wembley refused to cancel the scheduled greyhound racing for the same night as Uruguay v France, hence the temporary look of the goalposts

But pride of place goes to the awesome 1966 hardware at:

Ayresome Park