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This morning, I felt all warm and fuzzy. Maybe nostalgia ain't all it used to be, but my enthusiasm bubbled at the thought of Dens Park and Easter Road during March'75. Season '74-'75 began in desperation and quickly got worse. Jock Wallace was entering his third season as Rangers boss and Bears of my age had to draw on misty memories of Primary 2 or 3 to remember Rangers last Championship victory. Killie had won it in '65 under Wullie Waddell's tutelage and newly appointed Sellik manager, Jock Stein had won the subsequent nine in a row. It was the darkest of tunnels, but there had been lights. Big DJ's header winning the League Cup in '71, the ECWC victory in Barcelona, and the Tam Forsyth studding us to Scottish Cup success in '73. Those flickers did not sustain a League Championship winning flame. We kicked off the league season on the last day of August at Somerset Park, Ally McLeod had the Indian sign over us in Ayr. We required a Jardine penalty to secure a 1-1 draw. I travelled home on the Tannochside bus and thoughts were dark, already a point behind and we were visiting Sellik Park in a fortnight. In between, Thistle visited Ibrox and our new strike force of wingers, Graham Fyfe and Cutty Young notched our goals in a 3-2 win. The bus was despondent going along London Road, a lithe and agile pairing was not enough against ra green'n'grey's back four. The return journey was raucous, Johan and Cutty ran them into the corners, and surprise midfield starter, Ian'Ted'McDougall shot our second and winning goal off the far post. The following week, three things occurred. We signed Bobby McKean, I matriculated, and started a Saturday/Sunday job in Littlewoods. Dumbarton at the Stadium saw McKean's debut, he played well but the best winger on the pitch, was erstwhile 'Ger, Davie Wilson. We sneaked another 3-2 victory. My last free Saturday was spent at Rugby Park in the sunshine, we thrashed Killie 0-6. We went all the way to Christmas competing with both Hibs and ra Sellik. Eddie Turnbull's Hibs teams were a joy to watch. They defeated us at Ibrox in November, a Joey Harper goal and competed with Sellik for the League cup, the day we drew 1-1 at Tynecastle. The Saturday before Christmas, I attended Broomfield to witness a 4-3 defeat. As crazy a match as last Thursday's in Belgium. New Year's day saw me back on the Tannochside, Firhill beckoned. Greetings made, a sombre mood settled. Despite a 0-4 win, the return was only lifted when Mr Jaap(the Chair) opened two bottles of whisky, every traveller received a nip courtesy of the RSC. Three days later, we battered Sellik 3-zip at Ibrox and went top of the Division. The next ten weeks roller coasted, I saw two matches, both Aberdeen in the Cup. Littlewoods cafeteria was missing it's dishwasher, I took the Tannochside charabanc to Pittodrie. Ally Scott put us ahead, substitute Wullie Miller equalised. The Monday night replay was memorable for one thing, Rangers ran out under the floodlights in all white. The tie went to extra-time, 65,000 groaned as Arthur Graham nodded the Dons second and winning goal. Meanwhile, we had secured 6 wins and two draws in the League. The middle of March was the tipping point, perceived wisdom had us favourites to secure the Championship, if we could win at Dens? Again, three things occurred that week; I rapped Littlewoods Saturday suds, Rangers re-signed Colin Stein from Coventry City, and Tannochside announce their two buses were full and were taking no more names. I was reduced to enduring a match day special train from Central to Dundee. Sun dappled Dens squeezed in 25,000, it felt several thousand more. We were one down early, John Greig hit Dundee's posts twice with 25 yard screamers, and Colin Stein was ordered off. The second period was calming. Rangers ten men took control, and Parlane equalised with 15 minutes left. We came under sustained dark blue pressure for ten minutes, then a long ball through the middle saw both Parlane and the Dee Keeper challenge for the first touch on the edge of the penalty area. The ball bounced back to a supporting Tommy McLean who promptly passed it into the empty goal. It's difficult to describe, 'a sway' these days, four decades after they disappeared. You began at the back of the terrace, momentum lifted your feet and propulsion saw deliverance on your arse some 20-30 yards forward. Tommy's calmness stimulated a madness that tipped me and dozens of others, over the retaining wall. We celebrated on the track and on the pitch. We were still in situ' when the final whistle blew. The last day of March had myself and three Uni' mates on Leith Walk at high Noon. The queues at Easter Road rivalled Beatles hysteria. We got in before two O'Clock and were fortunate to find a standing position in front of a crush barrier on the old high terrace. The official attendance was 40,000. At the break, we were one behind and hundreds of Rangers supporters continued to come over the perimeter walls. Years after, a conversation with Archie MacPherson, who was on the gantry that day; he revealed the Match Commander reckoned Easter Road held 55,000 that flag winning afternoon. The second period was a blur, we pressed the Hibees all over the pitch. It was huff and puff, we won a penalty, Jardine struck the post. We kept going and McKean hit the bye-line, crossed to an on-running Colin Stein, a bullet header hit high in the net. Eruption amid an explosion of Pomagne corks. Emotions ran from stratospheric to nervous caution. Jock Wallace put a clearly well injured John Greig on to the pitch for the last three-four minutes. We are talking Turnbull's Hibs, you did not fcuk about. Match concluded, league secured, and exhaustion guaranteed. Pomagne was the revitaliser of choice. Fifteen bob(75np) a bottle, it was an aerated cider produced by methode champenoise. Fortunately, John Street Union had a necessary supply. There was a song by a cheesy pop act, Sailor - 'a glass of champagne'. Of course, for a few months that year, Bears adopted the tune, changing the line to a glass of pomagne. I think in homage to the spirit of '75 and emergence once again from the long dark tunnel, a glass of Pomagne should be raised. I note Bulmers produced this particular lightening in a bottle for a century, before discontinuing the elixir a decade past. Of course, other avenues are available, E-Bay has a 1978 vintage for sale, £50 for the entire bottle. I am tempted.

We've missed the opportunity to get in front of this and have dealt with it proactively. If we do anything now, and we definitely should, it'll appear that we're doing it because we were told to by the SNP. However, despite messing up on the PR, we should still be doing something. I've read some say that we reported it at the time sacked Neely and don't need to do anything else. I disagree. The victims have to be the priority and we should be doing whatever we can to support them (and should have been doing this a long time ago and not waiting for a report to jumpstart us into action).

Only a kid, with a tremendous future. Lets not punish ourselves and him for his one mistake, everyone deserves a second chance.

Partick Thistle issued an immediate apology. There's nothing to suggest the club are doing anything about what happened. Contacting the victims and asking what can be done would surely be a better course of action than generic apologies prompted by a (delayed and edited) report, issued by an untrustworthy organisation.

I think the club also has a duty to reach out to victims that haven't already come forward to create a safe and confidential space, with all the appropriate support needed to allow them to receive closure and for their story to be heard. We can't assume that just because only a couple of victims are known at this point, that there are not others. This isn't about PR, its about doing the right thing.

I really hope Rangers aren't planning to ignore what has happened. That would be a disgrace, regardless of what has gone on elsewhere.

I just hope the club are working on this in background, talking with victims, offering support and dealing with it away from the media. The interview with the former player suggests otherwise unfortunately.

It’s a really difficult one given the range of offences highlighted and the different times these offences occurred in. As I said at the start, I would normally be on the side of rehabilitation, but on this occasion with so much at stake and with emergency laws brought in to try to keep the pandemic in check I find it indefensible to attend a house party. The stupidity, arrogance, selfishness is, to me, off the scale and only blind luck meant they got caught out before they could rejoin training and force us to self-isolate a much larger number of our squad, perhaps causing us to withdraw from Europe, and get domestic games cancelled. The only other case I can think of that is also off the chart indefensible is Gazza’s wife-beating, which I personally find reprehensible and should have seen him sacked in my opinion. The other cases you mention, would have seen them sacked in Struth’s era I would guess, but in the 90’s were not really seen as being quite so bad on the scale of the moral compass, so other disciplinary routes were seen as enough punishment and I can’t recall disagreeing with how we handled those cases at the time. If all that makes me a little hypocritical, then fair enough. I’m glad I don’t have to make the decision!

Top class, absolutely top class.???

... aye, I also watched the full game again. Not just because, when it's as exciting a game as that, and you get the result, you kind of have to watch it again but also because watching it live was just such a stress-riddled, over-excitable experience I wasn't really able to properly judge what exactly had happened. Can't say I was any less astounded during the second watch but, being a bit calmer, I felt, yeah, there was a bit of opening rustiness due to Kent being dropped and suspension buddies Roofe and Morelos coming back in at the same time as a not-quite-match-fit Scotty Arfield. But, as with Alfie going on to be instrumental in all four of our goals after missing a good early chance to put us in front, I feel sure we would normally have gone on to win this one very easily. That we didn't was, for me anyway, attributable to the circumstances: I know you have to be ready for anything - especially in Europe - but most of the few mistakes we made, almost all of which were instantly punished, were down to stuff that, well, happened to us rather than was caused by us: For example, an injury to our captain, who never gets injured, in the very week we lose the young lad who was meant to cover him; and then - during the injury time allowed for Tav being replaced! - the star striker who stole the show, who stole the whole group stage, the last time we were in Belgium is injured. That had everyone wondering what the hell?? When you lose a player like Tav - a player who is never injured, never dropped and is so instrumental to our tactical vision and team identity - it will inevitably send a wee tremor through the club. When you lose him in the first half of a vital European away game, one in which you're already getting three other players back up to speed, that has to send shock waves through the team on the pitch. Then, during the added injury time for Roofe going off - and because the paperwork for Kent coming on wasn't ready for the fourth official (Jimmy Bell's second mistake, after Rofe-gate? You can tell him) - Antwerp get the softest penalty in the history of soft penalties, and we're going in 2-1 down and looking like the gods have it in for us, after having led 1-0 and looking like we could open up our hosts at will. Add to all that the worst-since-Beaton-at-Ibrox-v-Lennon's-Hibs refereeing performance, plus - whatever its merits or otherwise - the very fact we're not used to playing games under the auspices of VAR disrupting our flow in a way that perfectly suited an injury-riddled Antwerp side who wanted a bitty, broken-up game, and the fact we won that leg by any score is utterly bloody magic. Little wonder Stevie G said the players adapted to Dundee United's tactics yesterday by sorting it out on the pitch themselves. After last Thursday's tribulations they'll be able to switch formation ten times a game while solving a Rubik's cube with their left hand and doing some Sudoko with the right (pen in the mouth, filling out Jimmy's paperwork for the next sub). My arse was on the floor at full-time on Thursday yet the players, hilariously, brilliantly - reassuringly - seemed to be just casually giving it, "Nice wee workout, that - aye, quite enjoyable". And yesterday, after a bit of job sharing - Greegs covering the first half hour while everyone else had a lie-in - we saw that surfeit of enjoyment from Thursday pour into their legs when they just unleashed on United in a way we haven't managed to do to anyone other than Ross County this year. But the best laugh for me in Antwerp, as the players came off the Bosuilstadion pitch, was the off-stage member of our coaching staff hollering at Goldson - "CONNOR! CONNOR! GET HIM AWAY!" - because they thought Borna was about to go for their keeper again, following their wee squaring-up after the winning penalty. Borna hears this, turns to Goldson and just smiles and brushes it off as he heads over to, apparently, shake someone else kindly by the hand. But he has that exact same fixed smile, open-eyed stare on his face which could just as easily mean he's about to scalp someone, which is why I love players from the former Yugoslavia: They don't really do the posturing or handbags stuff. They're all skinny as rakes and their mood is either "I would die for you, my friend" or "You will die at my hands, my enemy". No in-between. GOLDSON: "Come on, Borna. Leave it. You're on a yellow and we've already lost Tav. Get up that tunnel." BORNA: "Leave what, big man? I'm chill. No sweat. Nae danger. Just going to shake hands with the guy". GOLDSON: "You sure? Coz I can never tell wi you. I'll get in trouble if you lose the plot". BORNA: "Totally sure. All forgotten. I'm 100% Karma Chameleon. We won, didn't we?! Why would I even care?! No, I'll see you in there, bro". GOLDSON: "Okay. Cool. See ye in there". [turns towards the tunnel] BORNA:"Oh, Connor..." GOLDSON: [turning back, disinterestedly] "Yeah?" BORNA: "Does a severed head count as hand luggage or would I have to put that in the hold?" GOLDSON; "Fu**ing WHAT??!" BORNA: "I said it's all good and I'll see ye in the dressing room..."

I would be surprised if any of us could say we haven't broken lockdown rules in some way, shape or form. I do, though, understand these guys are in a different situation

Since I can claim to have been properly aware of these things, I reckon I've enjoyed 22 league championships, every one special in its own right. I remember similarly long droughts being broken, the first time after Celtic's NIAR and again when Souness arrived, but given all that's happened these last 10 years it's hard not to see the impending league title as something particularly special, a truly exceptional event. Some players become supporters but they mainly only live in the present or at least the short term. Only the ordinary supporter experiences the ups and downs over the longer term, periods stretching across the careers of several managers and many players. I've been fortunate to see some great times as a Rangers fan and some pretty dark days too and I don't hesitate to say that our re-emergence this season will stand head and shoulders above everything else for me. It's good to be back.

Here's the thread on it when it first came to light. I've not heard that the club denied that they had been contacted, but it's obviously highly possible.

Apologies are fine and sceptic were quick off the mark in this(deflection tactic) as were the other "lesser" clubs,so maybe we should too. The amazing thing is the sudden appearance of "at least3 ?) in relation to Rangers,were they magicked from somewhere?. As a club who appeared to do the correct thing at the time we should conduct a proper investigation into them and maybe someday publish the truth as a precedent has been set historically.

A Garda?

Haha beautiful. Apologies...on the sauce last night.

It's a Gribz thread mate - confusion reigns, but it is usually when he is on the sauce, not sober

Baxter and Gazza wouldn't have lasted a week at Ibrox if we operated on that basis.