maineflyer 0 Posted October 16, 2009 Share Posted October 16, 2009 I am not supporting a shadow ! I am supporting a team that my father supports, my grandpa supports, my great grandpa supported etc etc !! Rangers is in the blood, stories will be passed down by generations of Barca 72, Davie Cooper etc !There is no shadow, we are one great club who will go on together !! Maybe you needed to actually be there to understand? We ARE a shadow of what we were .... as a club, as a team, and a support, as an institution. At least that's how it looks to me. I hope that it will change again but, looking back, it seems to be more or less a one-way street. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
chilledbear 16 Posted October 16, 2009 Share Posted October 16, 2009 I also started in the late fifties and early sixties. The niar years were awful and the '69 cup final remains my low point as a bear. But is isn't all about the field of play, you expect highs and lows. In the early 1960's Rangers were genuinely and widely acknowledged as Scotland's best club by supporters of many clubs. They might not have liked us but they generally like what the club represented. No one was running down our heritage and precious few that I can recall were offended by what Rangers stood for or what Rangers fans sang. We had the best scouting system in the business and generally didn't know what debt problems were. We played in three European finals in 11 years and generally held our heads high. Fast forward to fans being asked to grass on fellow fans, hounded by stewards looking for an excuse to have you ejected, pilloried in the media and government, a virtual pariah in our own back yard, a yawning gulf between club and support, a chairman lying through his teeth to an increasingly gullible support, etc, etc. It's hard not to compare the matchday experience now with 20 or 30 years ago and watch subdued fans sitting in silence for 75 minutes before heading for the exits. Was it better back then? Damned right it was. At least that's my personal opinion - it's the only thing I have to offer. I just didn't like seeing you wallowing. Tho' to be honest I don't think the Club ever thought much of us. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
andy steel 0 Posted October 16, 2009 Share Posted October 16, 2009 I don't recognise the bleak wasteland you're describing, Maine Flyer. I think you're overegging the pudding, there. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
maineflyer 0 Posted October 16, 2009 Share Posted October 16, 2009 I just didn't like seeing you wallowing. Tho' to be honest I don't think the Club ever thought much of us. Hey, don't knock the therapeutic value of wallowing! It's all that keeps me going some days. I'd just like to agree with your second point though. The club's owners and directors never did show much time for the support from what I've seen in my time. What they generally did though was leave us alone, neglect rather than manipulation. Murray changed all that - he had no background in the club's ways and spent 20 years trying to systematically sanitise and change it. In the process, he used tactics that alienated many and caused deep divisions among the support but did nothing to confront arseholes like Spiers, who have done much damage. Anyone who was at the 1972 ECWC semifinal against Bayern will understand the magnitude of what's been lost at Ibrox. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
maineflyer 0 Posted October 16, 2009 Share Posted October 16, 2009 I don't recognise the bleak wasteland you're describing, Maine Flyer. I think you're overegging the pudding, there. Fair enough. You've got to call your puddings as you see them, I've no problem with that. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
chilledbear 16 Posted October 16, 2009 Share Posted October 16, 2009 ''Anyone who was at the 1972 ECWC semifinal against Bayern will understand the magnitude of what's been lost at Ibrox'' What a night, the bus broke down at Stepps, ended up in the other end, the one and only time I have stood there. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
maineflyer 0 Posted October 16, 2009 Share Posted October 16, 2009 Must be something about Stepps. On the way home from the Torino game in the previous round, our bus got stuck in traffic for a while at Stepps - there's an almighty bang and yours truly is left sharing a seat with a brick from some passing sellick scum. The only time I can remember both ourselves and the filth playing at home in Europe on the same night. Plenty of fresh air on the way home! 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
chilledbear 16 Posted October 16, 2009 Share Posted October 16, 2009 It was the pub at the other side of the rhubarb patch, where our bus used to get the bricks. Blackhill but can't remember the name, Arthur Thompsons hangout I'm sure. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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