I was there too mate ..... i went to Ayresome Park a few times , and it was never the best place to really go .... the place was crammed with 'Phill Mitchell' lookalike hoolies , and Middlesbrough fans are a really game bunch .... the first leg of the League Cup semi in the seventies there was a bit dodgy too , especially in the dark, getting back to the train station later.
i have never had a kicking though , anywhere ... although i did come close on occasion , during the seventies, at both Leeds and Spurs.
There was also one occasion in the nineties, or early noughties, when Boro fans came down Wilmslow Road and attacked the Clarence Pub in Rusholme about an hour or so before the game , and i actually encountered them as cops struggled to contain them near to the Sherwood .... and, not content with that, they also entered the home section of the North Stand just before the game was finishing culminationg in a scrap, after which City chased them off.
But all the north east grounds were generally tough places to visit back in those days .... Sunderland was bad enough , but you really had to watch your back up at Newcastle .... and an FA Cup game there back in 1976/77 season , City won 3-1 , was absolutely horrendous ... we had around 10,000 fans there that day , but the constant fighting in the 'divided' Gallowgate End was that bad that a lot of City fans left at half time!