boabie

I'm 63. I was good once. Right now I'm not too comfortable with the ball at my feet. Some miracle worker might arrive and coach me back to former skills. I doubt it though. In my opinion, if you don't have the skills at the age that boy is, you'll never have them. I've seen far better than him leave and shed no tears in him going to Hamburg. If the desire isn't there he can make his own choice.

Tavernier, without a doubt. He's my kind of player.

Groups pointing out the bias against us is to be welcomed. But as long as Rangers fans provide the funds to keep clubs who are part of the problem going this will keep running. Nobody is reporting what is happening to the average man in the street. Stop buying the papers. Stop going to away matches against the problem. When they are starving they'll maybe change their tune. At the same time get our groups to call out halfwits like Spiers or bigots like Haggerty at every turn.

Are they not in the 2nd division or heading that way now ?

Rangers v Celtic, Scottish Cup Final, 5 May 1973. Friday, the day before the cup final and a mate and I still don't have tickets for the match. Usually there was a crowd of us apprentices attended matches together but for some reason it was only my mate Tam and me who finished work at 4.30pm and headed off exploring pubs to see if we could find a couple of briefs. The area around the Kingston Bridge used to have a pub on every corner and we visited them all without success before moving further afield and ending up in Gorbals, an area I knew well enough to be careful in. The Laurieston Bar, a pub I'd never been in but by this time we were beginning to become desperate . Tam called out, "Has anybody got any spare tickets for the game ?" A guy at the end of the bar who looked about 8 feet tall said, " Whit end ? " I nearly shit myself. Turned out we passed the test and left holding a ticket each for the Rangers end. I stayed near to Hampden so Tam came over next morning and we sank a few beers each before taking the short stroll to the Ground. The crowd for that Centennial Final is given as anywhere between 120,000 and 135,000. My memory may be playing tricks here but I seem to remember being outside Hampden and it bucketing of rain just as a guy shouted out " Two North stand tickets for two Rangers end". We swapped. Heading down Somerville Drive along the outside of the North Stand I began to get that sinking feeling. Yep. The sellik end of the stand. I'll say something I've believed since that day - had it not been such a fantastic match my mate Tam and I were at risk of a real doing. At one point Jimmy Johnstone got the ball and I stood up and shouted, " Kill that wee ginger bastard !" Apart from a few dark looks the only retort I got was, "Ach, that's no very nice, is it ?" God only knows what would happen nowadays. The scoring went 0-1, 1-1, 2-1, 2-2 before Tom Forsyths 3 inch screamer hit the net and we won 3-2. I remember John Greig acting as a goalkeeper and pulling off a great save only to have the rhats awarded a penalty as it's apparently not allowed. Tam and I somehow ended up in The Penny Farthing pub on Cathcart Road. Anyone who knows the area will know that wasn't a wise decision. We took the hint and headed off to a bar inhabited by human beings. Again, a great match probably saved us from severe damage. This is probably my favourite match ever. Bayern at Ibrox runs it close but this final had two teams playing to win and we came out on top. Bayern simply found themselves played off the park.

Not at all mate. Long time ago. No problem.

I couldn't pick out Anderson if he was sitting beside me in my living room. Who is he ?

Ian - yet STV Sport just announce that Hearts have released a statement saying they are "aggrieved " at being forced to play Rangers 3 times at Ibrox. SUBTEXT - the authorities are favouring Rangers once more.

RANGERS v NEWCASTLE UTD, Fairs Cup semi first leg, 14 MAY 1969. This one REALLY sticks in my mind. The reasons will become apparent to anyone after reading. My family had moved out of Glasgow and I was loving our new start in a new estate. As was the habit back then, my dad and I headed through to the match. This time though we were taking 2 neighbours, an Englishman and a Welshman. In Glasgow as usual we picked up my grandad . He'd retired from a working life digging holes for the Gas Board just a few weeks before. Granda made the 10 bob bet with me we'd made for years and years - I took Rangers to win with 2 goals of a start, had the benefit of the draw and my money back if we lost. It was his way of giving me pocket money. Dad parked the car in Elizabeth Street near to the stadium and we headed along to Ibrox. The game ended up 0-0 and was dreadful. Not because Rangers didn't score or had an off match, in fact we missed several chances to score, but because of the Newcastle teams tactics. Every time one of their players got tackled they fell to the ground rolling around to hold up the match by obvious time-wasting. It got so bad even the incompetent referee had had enough of it and waved play on after yet another Newcastle player fell to the ground and began impersonating a dying fly. The player got stretchered off and the same tactics continued for the rest of the match. Andy Penman, normally so adept at dead balls saw Willie McFaul save his penalty. Game over we began walking with the crowd back to our car. I was walking in front with my dad and the Welshman while granda and the English fella were a short distance behind. When dad told me to get the car keys from granda I turned and began walking back. Through the crowd I saw granda stop, put his hand to his chest and then fall face first onto the ground. I ran back and told my dad what I'd seen. Somebody phoned for an ambulance but it was obvious to me that was a waste of time. Dad remained with granda while I directed the Welshman who drove the car to my grannys house. Granny had been infirm for many years but we got her into the car and headed to the hospital. I was sitting in the car with granny when my dad came out and told us granda was dead. Later I had to direct our Welsh and English neighbours in my dads car back to our home town . Dad stayed in Glasgow that night. I've wished nothing but ill on Newcastle United since that game. I attended the return match Compo posted about above. One thing granda always used to say was, "When I go I want to have had a few drinks and seen the Rangers win a good match." One out of three isn't that bad I suppose.

Game over. 3-0. Btw, I know I said I don't watch a lot of football unless it's Rangers or Scotland [guys] but I'd a young relative played for the wimmin. She died recently and I met a couple of the lassies playing tonight at her funeral. Nothing pervy. Honest.

Nearly 4-0 there.

91 minutes , 3-0.

2-0 with 86 minutes played.

Should have been 2-0 there. straight through on the keeper.

It was a live investigation mate. There is no way Freedom of Information requests would be granted. The guy should repeat his request when the case is over with.

Now 1-0 Scotland. Game is live on BBCAlba.

With 75 minutes played Scotland are 0-0 with Poland. Poland just had a player[ess] sent off for 2 yellow cards.

Manchester United v Rangers. [Friendly] , 9 March 1974. I was in the third year of an engineering apprenticeship and a few guys in our factory started talking about heading to Manchester to see this game. Both Man U and us had free weekends having been knocked out of cup competitions. Talk got around to action and 6 of us met at The Iron Horse, Glasgow on the Friday night. Pubs shut at 10 pm back then so strong quick elbows were a necessity to ensure as much alcohol as possible could be shifted prior to throwing out time. Carry outs were bought and we boarded a bus just after 11 pm to head south. The journey was a bit of a blur and one of the few things I recall it was Gibby sitting in front of me handing over an opened McEwans Heavy can. I took a swig only to discover he'd been using it to pee into....... these things happen. My next memory is of being at the main train station near to Piccadilly and it being daylight. We'd each taken a small grip with our "good" clothes to change into and wear that evening at the pub, disco, whatever. These we dumped in left luggage lockers at the station before heading out to explore the town. There couldn't have been anything exciting about Manchester because pretty soon we found ourselves walking towards Old Trafford. Not far before we reached the stadium we saw a delivery truck outside a pub and a couple of guys lifting beer kegs, etc from it. Our offer to assist was accepted and the owner then invited us to take a seat at a table in front of a large fire before handing us a free pint. We managed maybe 3 pints before the doors got unlocked and Bears started spilling into the place. Before long the bar was packed and a guy asked us if he could borrow one of our chairs. Somebody got up and the fella stood on the chair before removing a painting hanging above the fireplace. I kid you not, it must have been about six feet by four. A couple more beers and we made our way to the stadium, only to find queues at the turnstiles which were all closed. Maybe half an hour later I turned around to see one of the funniest sights I've ever seen ---- an almost paralytic wee bear head down, carrying a flag on a stick staggering towards us. He looked up saw the queues and shouted, "CHARGE !!" before running straight at the doors closing the turnstiles. Eventually we got in to the Paddock End of the ground and the place began to fill. The crowd disorder that day has been well documented so I won't spend too much time sensationalising it here. One thing that really tickled me though was a Bear running on to the park to head off a couple of United fans who'd began to run towards our end. All got grabbed by the police, presumably for a night in the jail. Our man began making two finger gestures which he continued right around the track and up the tunnel. He got one of the biggest cheers of the day for his trouble. Memory says we went 1-0 down then 2-1 up. United equalised before Parlane scored the winner from a penalty. That evening was a nightmare. After changing into our "good" clothes we went seeking entertainment but got sadly disappointed. Due to the reported disorder nowhere would allow us in. We tried umpteen bars and clubs but the second a Scots accent was heard entry was barred. We must have floated around for 2 hours before tiredness of the legs and feet forced us into a late night picturehall. "The Abominable Doctor Phibes" and some other load of shit if you're at all interested. After that we got on a local bus and took a return journey to and from goodness knows where just so we could sleep for an hour or so. Around 6 am at the bus station they started herding us onto any bus heading to Glasgow. It didn't matter what bus or company you were supposed to be travelling with, Glasgow ?? -- just get on that one there son !. Home in Glasgow. Some sleep. Back to work Monday and wait to see what the future brings us.

Thanks very much for that offer Craig. It's much appreciated. On the same lines - my son in law and his boy had tickets in the Copland for the past few years. The boy reached an age where he's decided he isn't bothered whether he goes or not so that's another season ticket down for the club.

If there is little or no response to this a further statement NAMING those working to an obvious agenda should be made. That should be followed up with a full scale attack on these maggots. All this has to be brought to a halt without delay. I for one am fed up being treated as a criminal because of who I support.

YB - " We stood on the terracing opposite the stand in what seemed to be a huge crowd. " That's what I was on about when mentioning Wiki. Hibs wiki have the game at Easter Road with a crowd of 43500. Rangers wiki have it at Ibrox with under 19000 attending. As said, I'm rubbish with computers and it takes me ages to work things out or check details. There's always been a decent crowd at that fixture any time I went through to Edinburgh.

I decided not to renew next season. The fact is I've too much happening between my daughters business, periods of ill health and family matters. It's a shame because I've a mate who has fallen on hard times and who's been using my ticket when I couldn't make it to matches. To say nothing about a slight resurgence in our squad. Typical - seasons of watching garbage only to miss out when it looks like improvement is coming.

I'm useless with computers so have to make posts "live" rather than type out an article or whatever, save it somewhere else and then go back to copy and paste onto a site such as this. I thought about one covering our run to Barcelona but It would be very lengthy and have to be made in one go so I'll leave it until I've a day with nothing else planned.

I thought it might be a good idea to start a thread inviting Rangers fans to post their memories of matches from days gone by. I've several and would hope to find the time to get them down for posterity. My memory isn't what it once was and I have to say that confirming some of the details of the game online became a real trial and proved the fact that Wiki should never be used as a point of reference. I'll go with the little brain cells I have left and state that Wiki Rangers have got this one wrong, the game was played away from home. Hibs v Rangers , 30 January, season 1964/65. This one sticks in my head for several reasons which I'll explain as I go along. Firstly, it was my birthday. Back then I didn't miss many Rangers home matches, in fact very few games anywhere and usually headed to them crammed in the back of my grandads Gas Board van, sitting on top of old valves, scrap metal and tools. This time though, my dad having passed his driving test the week before and him having borrowed his pals van we made the trip from the south side of Glasgow through to Easter Road. I remember it being unsurprisingly, a cold day. Just then the vans oil warning light came on forcing a stop at a petrol station to buy a can of oil. Near to Calderpark Zoo, just before we got on to the dual carriageway heading east we saw a long haired guy with his thumb extended and dad asked if we should pick him up. The fella climbed into the rear, thanked us and didn't stop talking for the next hour. He was a student of some kind but that's about as much as I could make out. Somewhere on the journey we stopped to get something to eat and the student followed us in to the greasy spoon. Maybe he'd forgotten his wallet, suffered from Paisley Disease or similar, but I know my dad paid for the 3 lunches. Back in the van our guest bummed yet another cigarette from dad just as the oil warning light lit up again leading to the purchase of another pint of engine oil. Heading along Princes Street the student said he'd reached his objective. We stopped. He thanked us before leaning over through the window to ask dad what time he'd be going back to Glasgow as it would save him time and trouble if he could cadge a lift with us for the return journey. Dad told me to cover me ears before blasting him with something along the lines of, " We've gave you a bleep bleep lift. You've smoked all my bleep bleep fags, ate all my sons bleep bleep sweeties. Ponced a bleep bleep meal. You haven't shut your bleep bleep mouth the whole bleeping journey talking a load of bleeping rubbish and you have the bleeping nerve to ask for a bleeping lift back ?!! Bleep off ya bleeping bleeper ! " We drove off just as the oil warning light woke up again. The game itself was unremarkable. We lost 1-0 to the team who'd finish 4th in the 18 team league, one place above Rangers. That season was one of the very few where neither us nor Celtic finished in the top 2. Celtic finished in 8th place that season. We did however win the League Cup beating Celtic 2-1 in the final thanks to two goals from Jim Forrest . I was at that match too - thanks be to God ! Another 2 pints of oil were added to the engine before we reached home. The following day my dads mate was able to report that all the oil did not blow up the engine. But it was a close run thing. The faulty oil warning light was repaired later. I've no idea what became of the student .

I wish the lad well and all success in his playing next season - as long as it isn't us paying his wages.