Help With an Article - The Football Pink - Rangers in the 80s

[26th of foot 5,859]

Talking of snow, the quarter final home tie against Cologne was postponed on the Wednesday and played on the Thursday, Rangers had asked for volunteers to clear the pitch.

 

Well remembered.

 

I had forgotten the Cologne game was played on the Thursday night.

 

Reference the bad guys, Gregor Stevens was the Rangers News player of the year.

[Little General 80]

Well remembered.

 

I had forgotten the Cologne game was played on the Thursday night.

 

Reference the bad guys, Gregor Stevens was the Rangers News player of the year.

 

Just shows how bad we were then. Stevens was awful.

[boabie 230]

Just shows how bad we were then. Stevens was awful.

 

Strangely enough, just a few weeks ago a mate said to me we could be doing with someone like Stevens as a strong link in our side right now.

My reply I think put that one out to dry - could we depend on the rest of our defence to guard the resultant free kicks around the box ?

I don't think the guy could spell football.

[Joe3Carroll 0]

Big Jaws, thank you for your response. There's plenty there to get my teeth into (no pun intended).

 

Sorry, I wasn't completely clear in my intro. My piece is not limited to the 1980s, so your recollections of events in the 70s are really useful, thanks. What I'd like to know is, in your opinion, was there a feeling of a "fall from grace" by the mid-80s? For older fans, might this feeling of a "sleeping giant" have been around leading up to that first title in 11 years in 75? Or in other words, did Rangers always have the "biggest club in Scotland" tag before demises in the 60s, 70s and 80s?

 

Thanks again for your input.

[Scott7 5,242]

Not sleeping, exactly. More groggy.

 

Hearts, Hibs and Dundee might be called sleeping giants by some but I reckon they stopped being giants before they fell asleep.

 

In British football surely Wednesday are the classic sleeping giants.

[Joe3Carroll 0]

For me, there were two matches that were signifiers of the era. The first was the 1982 Scottish Cup Final against Aberdeen. We'd already won the League Cup that season but it was another fase dawn and our league form wasn't good as we finished a distant 3rd, ten points behind 2nd placed Aberdeen. Aberdeen hammered us in the final, it was 4-1 after extra time but that suggests the first 90 minutes were close and they weren't.

 

But it wasn't just the result it was the sides too. Aberdeen had exciting young players like Leighton, Miller, McLeish, Strachan, Cooper, Simpson and Hewitt with Eric Black on the bench. Rangers bench had Tommy McLean on it, he was 35 at the time. The starting 11 included stalwarts of the great 70s Rangers sides Sandy Jardine and Alex Miller, both were fit and talented but well into their 30s and passed their best, our young players were John McDonald and Gordon Dalziel and it was clear even then that neither was international class, unlike Aberdeen's young players.

 

That match signified the passing of a baton from Rangers to Aberdeen. Aberdeen had finished only 2 points behind champions Celtic in the league and were clearly building an exciting young team. We did have some good players in our side, Bobby Russell, Davie Cooper, Jim Bett and John McLelland all started the match and were international class players but the players around them simply weren't. That Aberdeen side went on to beat Real Madrid to win the Cup Winners Cup they qualified for beating Rangers. They also won the league twice whilst Rangers struggled to finish fourth.

 

Fast forward to August 31st 1986. A new Rangers side were playing Celtic at Ibrox in the first Old Firm match of the season. Souness had become manager a few months before and had signed Terry Butcher, Chris Woods and Colin West from the English league. Butcher in particular was one of the finest defenders in the world at the time and Souness (sorry, as an Everton fan this might hurt) was one of Europe's best midfielders and had been Scotland captain going into the summer's World Cup (in the days when Scotland qualified for tournaments).

 

But the season hadn't started too promisingly. Opening day defeat to Hibs was followed by a close win at home to Falkirk then defeat at home to Dundee Utd. We beat Hamilton away before welcoming champions Celtic to Ibrox having won only two of our first four matches of the season.

 

Celtic had a good side, they'd won the league on the final day of the season a few months before, in a time when the league was genuinely competitive and three or four sides went into it with realsitic expectations of success. They were unbeaten going into the match, winning every game except one, a draw with Aberdeen. They were the form side and the champions.

 

Rangers won the match 1-0. A suberb finish from Ian Durrant set up by a sublime run and assist from a revitalised Davie Cooper. It wasn't just the result though, it was the manner of the performance. We went toe-to-toe with the champions and we outplayed them. Our side now had four genuinely international class players in Souness, Cooper, Woods and Butcher alongside exciting young players like Ally McCoist, Ian Durrant and Derek Ferguson.

 

We'd had a few false dawns over the previous 6 years, but this felt different, and that's not just with hindsight. It was clear even then that Durrant was a class above above any other young player we'd produced in a couple of decades. McCoist, a player who didn't look like he'd make it at Ibrox before that season was suddenly scoring for fun and, probably most importantly, Davie Cooper a veteran of the side, a player gifted with incredible close control and power, responded to the improvement in squad and attitude to produce his defining season. He was immense, unplayable at times, drawing defenders out of position to create space for others to exploit, creating chances and looking like he was actually enjoying football again.

 

That was the day I believed we could win the league again. We laid down a marker that day. By the end of the seaon Alex Ferguson had left Aberdeen and Davie Hay was sacked as Celtic manager. We won the league that season and the League Cup and most tellingly changed Scottish football for seasons to come. Now we can debate whether ultimatley that change was for the better now, but at the time it certainly was.

 

Thanks John, that made for a fascinating read. I hate to dish out praise for Kopites, but I take your word for it re: Souness. I actually quite like his punditry work, the perfect antidote on Sky to the white noise that spews out of Redknapp. And all the Everton books I've read about the 80s include Blues players dishing out compliments to the man.

 

My main focus will be about the struggles endured by the club, but also the fans so it's great to get first hand accounts. If you have any other particularly miserable occasions that stand out from this period; moments that sum up the love-hate, oxymoronic relationship between fan and club (i have many as an Evertonian), I'd love to hear them.

 

Thanks again for your time

[Scott7 5,242]

Defeat by Chesterfield - yes, Chesterfield - over two legs is my most miserable memory.

[pete 2,499]

As I said before I stood on the terraces in the late seventies on the cold winter nights with only 15.000 disgruntled fans watching crap football. Willie Waddell was taking a lot of stick for not investing in the team. I remember some fans shouting there was no point in building a new stadium if there were no fans left. I remember that sort of sentiment.

[Joe3Carroll 0]

Defeat by Chesterfield - yes, Chesterfield - over two legs is my most miserable memory.

 

What year was that Scott, if you can remember? Thanks

[Scott7 5,242]

Anglo-Scottish Cup season 1980/81.

 

First leg, 13 October 1980: Rangers 1, Chesterfield 1

Second leg, 28 October 1980: Chesterfield 3, Rangers 0

 

Rangers team included McLoy, Jardine, Forsyth, Jackson, Bett and Russell.

 

Awful football event. Two games make it no fluke.