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FAO: older bears RE: Derek Johnstone


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44 minutes ago, Canabear said:

I followed that Rangers team home and away starting with the 70 LCF ,which today is the 50th anniversary, and right through the 70's right up till i emigrated in 1980.

Just read that DJ scored the only goal in the 1970 cup final against celtic when he was 16 years old. Didn’t know that. Crazy. 

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52 minutes ago, OhW said:

Just read that DJ scored the only goal in the 1970 cup final against celtic when he was 16 years old. Didn’t know that. Crazy. 

Find it hard to believe you did not know that fact in our history. 1970 LEAGUE cup final at hampden with a crowd of 106,000. Yes I'm an old yin and yes I was there as DJ rose between McNeil and Craig to bullet home that header past Ronnie Simpson for the only goal of the game. I wonder, does anyone have any clips of the game? Happy memories.

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1 hour ago, slimjim1690 said:

As I recall there was stories in the newspapers at the time that Chelsea were after him to sign and Jock Wallace had to dash down to London and track him down in his hotel and the only way that DJ would sign a new contract was if he was made captain and moved back to CH, hard to believe that big Jock would have relented but that story was quite strongly believed at the time.

He was my favourite player when we won the treble in 78. He did end up at chelsea and we signed him back on loan when Jock Wallace was back the 2nd time. I remember his first game back was at pittodrie when we lost five one. Alex totten was in charge cos Wallace was getting a hernia operation, we were getting beat 3 nil or something so us in the beach end were all shouting to get DJ on. When he came he looked about 16 stone and could hardly run. Those early to mid 80s days were grim.

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6 hours ago, gmcf said:

He was versatile and was good in both positions . 

He was CF when he broke into the team ( LCF'70 )but , if my memory serves me right , it was Willie Waddell that started him at CH ( ECWC '72 ) and he continued there once Jock Wallace took over.  I'm sure he even played for Scotland as CH in that period . 

It was mid 70's he reverted back to CF and had a great partnership with Gordon Smith for a few seasons . He was mainly a CF after that so I doubt he'd have matched Allys goal haul . 

he always fancied himself as the new john Charles.he also thrived off tommy mclean.

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Big Johnstone should’ve played in Argentina at least on the bench especially after the first game but Joe Harper was brought in before him for the second game, that prick ally mcleod had the hump with DJ for some reason, various rumours, but mcleod got what he deserved another failure.

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12 minutes ago, BLUEDIGNITY said:

Big Johnstone should’ve played in Argentina at least on the bench especially after the first game but Joe Harper was brought in before him for the second game, that prick ally mcleod had the hump with DJ for some reason, various rumours, but mcleod got what he deserved another failure.

I always felt growing up that Rangers players got overlooked for tournaments or bigger games with the National team. Bizarre decisions like McCoist not being taken to tournaments etc when he was easily the best striker in the country winning golden boots, or playing Leighton ahead of Goram when Leighton is losing constantly with Aberdeen and we are in the Champions League and doing 9IAR. Crazy the way the SFA treated top players like Gough, Goram, Duncan Ferguson, Durrant, Durie, David Robertson etc. It seemed to be the period when Souness came in that the SFA changed their attitude towards us. I mean Davie Cooper only has about 19-20 caps and he is one of the finest ever Scottish players. I'm not old enough to remember us in the 70s and early 80s but it seemed there was always plenty of our players in the National team squads then and things changed after. It is sad as a Scotsman that I don't really feel any affinity towards our national side at all.  

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7 hours ago, GOAT said:

Why if he was so prolific in front of goal did he play centre half quite a lot and if he was just used as a striker all the time, could he have beaten even McCoist as our top scorer of all time?

He preferred playing centre half did he not? I wasn’t born back then, but pretty sure I’ve heard that. 

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23 minutes ago, DrLaudrup said:

I always felt growing up that Rangers players got overlooked for tournaments or bigger games with the National team. Bizarre decisions like McCoist not being taken to tournaments etc when he was easily the best striker in the country winning golden boots, or playing Leighton ahead of Goram when Leighton is losing constantly with Aberdeen and we are in the Champions League and doing 9IAR. Crazy the way the SFA treated top players like Gough, Goram, Duncan Ferguson, Durrant, Durie, David Robertson etc. It seemed to be the period when Souness came in that the SFA changed their attitude towards us. I mean Davie Cooper only has about 19-20 caps and he is one of the finest ever Scottish players. I'm not old enough to remember us in the 70s and early 80s but it seemed there was always plenty of our players in the National team squads then and things changed after. It is sad as a Scotsman that I don't really feel any affinity towards our national side at all.  

Pretty much got me like that as well, as a younger guy used to go to the internationals, loved going to Wembley etc. Started to realise what it was all about in my early thirties, that was the early 1980’s, last game I was at was 1984 against Spain, never been to a game since. There was hate, resentment and jealousy towards Rangers by those running the game here long before 2012. Sad as you say but that’s the way it is. 

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2 hours ago, BlueAvenger said:

Just my opinion, but DJ was a far better centre forward than centre half

Of course he was .He played a blinder against them scum few times as CH though

Preferred DJ up front .He was incredible in the air and winning games for us with a 1-0 DJ goal 

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21 minutes ago, My Fathers Scarf said:

He was too flecking fat to run about for 90 minutes as a forward. Great memories of him scoring though. As others have said, best headerer of a ball that I've seen. 

And remember he had world class wingers feeding him cross after cross.  And they weren't timmy crosses.........

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6 hours ago, slimjim1690 said:

As I recall there was stories in the newspapers at the time that Chelsea were after him to sign and Jock Wallace had to dash down to London and track him down in his hotel and the only way that DJ would sign a new contract was if he was made captain and moved back to CH, hard to believe that big Jock would have relented but that story was quite strongly believed at the time.

That’s how I remember it.

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