Season to be Cheerful

Jeff Holmes

Description

1992/93: It was the season to be cheerful if you were a Rangers fan. Walter Smith assembled a squad full of courage, and no shortage of skill. A combination of both qualities would see the Light Blues complete arguably the finest season in the club's long and illustrious history. The Treble of Premier League, Scottish Cup and League Cup was secured - and a 44-game unbeaten run meant Rangers ruled the roost in Scotland. But it was in the first-ever Champions League where Rangers came within a whisker of making their mark. Ten matches unbeaten - often achieved with an injury-hit side - would have been enough to make the final most other years, but Marseille, with the help of some friends, prevented Rangers enjoying their finest hour. The chief protagonists of season 1992/93, including Ian Durrant, John 'Bomber' Brown and Dave McPherson, help tell the story of a campaign that still occupies a prominent place in the minds of Rangers fans. Was 1992/93 Rangers' greatest season in living memory?

Sujets

• Central Scotland

Informations

• Publié par: Pitch Publishing Ltd
• Date de parution: 01 septembre 2017
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781785313592
• Langue: English

Extrait

First published by Pitch Publishing, 2017
Pitch Publishing
A2 Yeoman Gate
Yeoman Way
Durrington
BN13 3QZ
www.pitchpublishing.co.uk
Jeff Holmes, 2017
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A CIP catalogue record is available for this book from the British Library
Print ISBN 978-1-78531-325-7 eBook ISBN 978-1-78531-359-2
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Contents
Acknowledgements
Foreword
Introduction
1. McCoist makes it to Tuscan Paradise
2. Dave McPherson
3. League Flag Flies Proudly on Opening Day
4. Ally Maxwell
5. Lyngby are Dane For in Euro Qualifier
6. Bomber Brown
7. Goals Galore for Super Ally
8. Battle of Britain
9. Old Firm Joy for Gers
10. Ian Durrant
11. Fergie Outguns Russians in Bochum
12. Gary McSwegan
13. A Two-Horse Title Race
14. David Robertson
15. Gers are Top of the Hit Parade!
16. Dale Gordon
17. Huistra Grabs Euro Point In Bruges
18. Archie Knox
19. French Farce Ends Euro Dream
20. Stuart McCall
21. McSwegan Seals Title Glory
22. Pieter Huistra
23. Make Mine a Treble!
Statistics
Photographs
For my dad, John Holmes. Forever in my thoughts
Acknowledgements
W RITING about this season in particular brought back an awful lot of great memories. They may have taken place 25 years ago, but the moment I started my research, back they came. The treble, Leeds United, Marseille, Ally McCoist s golden boot, the 44-game unbeaten run, and so many more. I was present at just about every game: I lived it and it was a wonderful time to be a Rangers supporter. But you take the good with the bad, they say!
The guys I interviewed for the book were all first class. I met some in restaurants, others at Ibrox, and we did a couple by e-mail and telephone. It all adds up to a massive thank you to Archie Knox, John Bomber Brown, Dale Gordon, David Robertson, Ally Maxwell, Ian Durrant, Gary McSwegan, Dave McPherson, Stuart McCall and Pieter Huistra for agreeing to participate in this book.
It s always a great pleasure for me to interview those who were fortunate enough to pull on the famous blue jersey. I ve watched them from the terracing and the stand for more years than I care to remember, so to share a coffee and their insight into our club is a wonderful privilege.
And to former Rangers director John Gilligan, who was kind enough to pen the foreword. His memories of 1992/93 were a joy to read and I thank him very much. John is a real bluenose at heart and exactly the type of person the club needed at the time to get back on its feet.
A special thanks also to Cheryl Fleming for tracking down and interviewing Dale Gordon. My meagre expenses would never have extended to an overnight stay in Dubai!
As always, it s impossible to undertake a book such as this without the help of many individuals. Among them are David Mason, Alex Boyd, Stephen Docherty and Andy McInnes, who all lent a hand, while Stephen Rothwell came up with the tickets I wanted to feature at the head of each chapter.
However, Davie Lambie was arguably the man of the match. His individual caricatures made me smile, and were the perfect way to introduce each interviewee. But just like the squad of 1992/93, it s a team game here!
And finally to Paul Camillin, Jane Camillin and all the team at Pitch Publishing. If there is a better sports publisher out there then I ve yet to find it. Once again they were on top of everything and open to new suggestions and ideas. Salute!
Foreword
R ANGERS FC has been with me all my life. My family were all bluenoses and I can t remember a single day when Rangers hasn t been part of my conversation, wherever I am in the world.
I first met the author Jeff a couple of years ago when he contacted me on behalf of Big Jock Wallace s grandson John, who was coming over from Spain for a game. Young John wasn t looking for special treatment and wanted to sit in the Broomloan Front with his mates. Jeff gave me a call and we invited John up to The Blue Room after the match. We ve been friends ever since and we also had his gran and dad over for a game last season.
Tradition and history is what matters, and it must be protected. Having Big Jock s family back at the club was as it should be; it felt right. Growing up in a Church of Scotland family, and being a member of the Boys Brigade, the values given to me have stood me in great stead and shaped my life. Rangers FC was always an extension of those values.
We have been tested like no other support and have stood loyal and true to our club and its values, but without our phenomenal backing we would be just another team. The day we won our club back is one of the best days of my life. Being a director of Rangers was very special and I ll continue to support the club in any way I can from outside the boardroom.
Now on to 1992/93; an amazing season in so many ways. We won the treble and continued our run towards nine in a row. We had an amazing squad dominated by Scottish and English players. It included Goram, Nisbet, Robertson, Gough, McPherson, Brown, Durrant, McCall, McCoist, McSwegan, Ferguson, Hateley, Steven, Stevens and Gordon. Our team was British with a Scottish backbone.
In a season full of highlights, the best for me was beating a wonderful Leeds United side in the Battle of Britain. We were all stunned when Leeds scored first at a packed and raucous Ibrox; it was met with a weird silence that had me doubting it was even a goal! Then that fantastic comeback to win 2-1 after an own goal by Lukic and a winner from guess who Mr McCoist himself.
I couldn t get to Leeds as I had just started a new job with McEwan s Lager based in - wait for it - Aberdeen. So I watched the match with some fellow bluenoses and other fans in a pub called Cocky Hunters. When Big Hateley smashed in the opener I went absolutely mental and got no hassle from anyone, as all the Gers fans were going nuts!
We were battered for a while before getting that amazing second goal: Bomber wins a tackle and the ball breaks to Fergie, who passes it forward to Durrant. He plays it out to Hateley, who has come wide left. The big man whips over a brilliant cross that is met by the onrushing Super Ally and he guides a fabulous header into the back of the net.
History will show we were denied our chance of a place in the final by questionable means, but the run remains our best and we should have been in that final, where we would have stood a real chance of winning.
Since then we ve had the Lovenkrands Final , the last-day win against Dunfermline to clinch the title and of course Helicopter Sunday.
The last five years have been tough, but we re a tough support; we bend to no one and we will be there for 55 - that s for sure.
Yours aye,
John Gilligan
Former Rangers Director
Introduction
W EDNESDAY, 21 October 1992; not a date that rolls easily off the tongue, but one which presented me with a dilemma. I knew I would be asked to work late that afternoon, and that was the problem. A big problem.
At the time I was employed by Scottish Television as a stagehand/prop man. It was a good job, my first job actually. I had started in the Cowcaddens television programme factory in January 1977. I was an extremely loyal employee, but that day I would have to introduce a little cunning.
I was working on the latest episode of the cop drama Taggart , and we were filming in Airth, a little village close to Falkirk. The one-off special was called Fatal Inheritance and starred Hannah Gordon as the proprietor of an upmarket country club-cum-spa. The show was due to air on New Year s Day. Detective Chief Inspector Jim Taggart books into a health farm to keep an eye on the good doctor, after she receives a Not Proven verdict in the court case relating to the murder of her husband s lover. The usual Taggart fare.
That was all good and well, but I had a more pressing problem; how to get out of working late that Wednesday. Due to the nature of the filming, a string of night shoots were necessary, although the only place I wanted to be that evening was Ibrox as Leeds United visited in the second round, first leg of the European Cup.
I had a ticket, of course, and the only thing left for me to do was convince the production designer (my boss) that I had to be elsewhere from around 6pm until around 10pm. He wasn t a football man, and it would have been unprofessional to have asked for time off, especially as half the crew were Rangers supporters and were desperate to be at the match. No problem. A future location required some finishing touches and as I drove off in the rented Transit van, he waved with a mixture of friendliness and suspicion. I had convinced him the job only required the services of one man for a couple of hours. He would never know, would he?
I motored towards Glasgow and the traffic was heavy. After all, 43,250 others had the same idea; maybe not to bunk off work, but to get to the game on time. I had left Airth with time to spare so I had little to worry about.
Arriving at the ground, I searched for a parking space in the pot-holed streets surrounding Ibrox and eventually paid a couple of mini Goodfellas to watch my van and walked the short distance to the ground.
Striding towards the Broomloan Road stand I could feel a real sense of anticipation within my fellow supporters. There was a real sense that this could be our night. Of course, Leeds were a top team and had some fantas