GR09

From the first link the OP posted :- "Another self-confessed Rangers fan, from a slightly later era to Baxter’s heyday, is writer and broadcaster Graham Spiers." WTF ?

Was at the Imtech Arena on Saturday for HSV v Bayern Munich and have to say it came close.

Mort de rire !

For me it was 86-87. I went to my first game in in the 75-76 season, but didn't start going regularly till 78-79 so from then I'd had to watch us being second best to celtic, aberdeen, and even dundee united. Then in 1986 Souness arrived and everything changed overnight, resulting in us winning the league that season for the first time i was old enough to enjoy it. A close second would be the year we beat Leeds United and had a good run in the Champions League.

It was because he had played for Scotland that season.

What does this top look like ? I've never seen one, but going from the "Menace" comment earlier had a thought. . . . . could it have been a Germany away top ?

been beaten to most of mine, but here goes . . . Jim Denny, Billy Urquhart, Billy MacKay, Neil Murray, and Gregor Stevens.

Yeah me too, I just finished this morning. The first half is great, but the second half is very difficult to read.

I think we've had sufficient proof over the years that they ARE fucking idiots.

Sandy was my first footballing hero. I had my mum sew a number 2 on the back of my first ever Rangers shirt. Most heroes fail to live up to expectations. Sandy exceeded them.

One went on Ebay recently for about £40 - http://www.ebay.ie/itm/1945-GLASGOW-RANGERS-V-MOSCOW-DYNAMO-/360879396207 It doesn't look in great condition though, and I'm sure I saw one recently on another auction site go for about £90.

Yeah, sorry . . .was in a hurry and multitasking and didn't read your whole post properly.

Just saw the medal. I think it says 'International Match Glasgow Rangers - Dinamo M" round the outside, and Glasgow 1945 in the centre.

There's a book on the Moscow Dynamo goodwill tour called Passovotchka. It's a good read. One of my favourite stories was that Rangers signed a player - Caskie (?) and the Russians kicked up a big fuss believing that they were just strengthening the team for the game. The game nearly didn't go ahead, but Rangers agreed not to play him. Anyway, the Russians requested and were taken on a visit to the workers at the shipyards in Govan. At one point the Russians asked for a translation of some graffiti, thinking it was some left wing slogan. It was in fact "Who's afraid of Caskie ?"

This.

Did he used to Play for Cheltenham Town ?

Can someone enlighten me as to why Stuart McCall never gets much of a mention when the next manager is discussed ? To me he has done a very good job with Motherwell with limited resources and would be an ideal candidate. A Bradford fan I work with says he did a great job there too, only resigning because he promised promotion or playoffs (I forget exactly which) and when he narrowly missed out, left. This despite the advice of Alex Ferguson, and against the wishes of the Bradford fans.

Dunno if that's aimed at me or not Guvnor, but yes that was the final straw. As I said in the post, it wasn't about the result, but about the performance. The first game I attended was in Jock Wallace's first spell as manager, and I don't think i can remember seeing a poorer performance from a Rangers team. I also agree with you that most Rangers fans couldn't care less about the Ramsden's cup - I'm one of them, but I would expect a bit more effort than we saw today from the players given there's a medal in it for them at the end. As for taking so long to come round, mea culpa. It was for a variety of reasons; no pre-season, signing ban (yes I know we've done that to death, but there is SOME merit in it.), the fact that he was a new and relatively inexperienced manager who I hoped was going to grow into the job, the fact that I live away and only get to see around 10-15 games a season these days (and the ones I have seen haven't been THAT bad) and I'm also naturally optimistic. One time in the 80s, I was outside Ibrox after we'd been comfortably beaten by Aberdeen under Ferguson. There was a demonstration of sorts going on and I remember when Ally came out to leave one guy went up to him and said "You said no to Rangers three times, you should have made it a fourth!" - Well he went on to prove that guy spectacularly wrong, and I was hoping he would do the same as manager. I have now lost that hope.

I have quietly been an Ally supporter up till now too but Gogzy's post sums it up for me. The telling thing for me was Rangers having gone in at half time looking comfortable without really threatening a lot, it was the RAITH manager who was able to shake things up and they came out of the blocks much faster than us. Also, why were most of the loose balls at either end being picked up by Raith players? They were more up for it than us and that is a disgrace. Whether we had won or lost today, the performance is completely unacceptable.

Wasn't Stanley Matthews the son-in-law of Tom Vallance ?

I'm not massively excited about it, but it does mean more than the run of the mill league games. Should we win, I'll feel a degree of satisfaction as another stage on our return back to the top is successfully accomplished. Should we lose, I'll be extremely disappointed. On the plus side, it is an opportunity for our younger players to experience playing in a cup final, albeit a less important one, and it will be another trophy in the cabinet.

This. Tbh, I don't think he gives a shit about the tackle, he just has an eye on a transfer and is getting his excuses in early as to why he failed in Scotland.

They've picked up a bit with the new manager and look like they're going to stay up.

I vaguely remember some story in the paper around the time Jock Wallace took over for his second stint. He told Cooper to lose some weight and set a time limit. Davie did it in a much shorter time and that was his method . . . long runs wearing a bin liner.

My best memory of Coop was a midweek League Cup second leg game away to Kilmarnock in 1982, He was immense that night . . . . scored 4 and made a 5th in a 6-1 win, totally ripped Kilmarnock apart. Unfortunately I dont think there were any cameras there.