Picture above shows Bobby Russell in the May 1978 Scottish Cup Final v Aberdeen.

This was his first season with Rangers after signing from Shettleston Juniors in the summer of 1978.

He won the Man of the Match award in this game. Giving a midfield display far in advance of his 20 years of age

 

Above:Bobby Russell and Gordon Smith. 1978 Scottish Cup Final. 

Below: Bobby Russell celebrates scoring v Dundee Utd in the May 1981 Scottish Cup Final Replay. Rangers No 6 is Jim Bett and Ian Redford is arriving to celebrate.

Bobby Russell will launch his book at New Edmiston House on Friday (Image: SNS)

A Rangers defensive wall lines up against Celtic at Hampden in November 1978. 

Left to Right. Gordon Smith, Alex Miller, Sandy Jardine, Bobby Russell, Alex Forsyth and Alex McDonald.

 

 

 

 

1986-87 season.

After the Skol (League) Cup Final in 1988.

Edited October 24, 20241 yr by erskblue

My paternal grand-father said that Davie Meiklejohn was the best Rangers player he saw.

https://everything-rangers.co.uk/2020/04/20/hall-of-fame-davie-meiklejohn/

Hall of Fame: Davie Meiklejohn

20th April 2020 By Rangers.co.uk

Davie Meiklejohn (1919 – 1936)

Born: 12 December 1900, Govan
Appearances: 563
Goals: 16
Honours Won With Rangers League Titles (12) – 1920/21, 1922/23, 1923/24, 1324/25, 1926/27, 1927/28, 1928/29, 1929/30, 1930/31, 1932/33, 1933/34, 1934/35
Scottish Cup (5) – 1927/28, 1929/30, 1931/32, 1933/34, 1935/36
Caps: 15 (Scotland)

THE enormity of the moment was not lost on Davie Meiklejohn as he placed the ball on the penalty spot 55 minutes into the Scottish Cup final at Hampden Park on 14 April 1928. A then record crowd 118,115 had assembled at Hampden with thousands locked outside to see if Rangers could finally end their ‘Cup Hoodoo’ when they faced old rivals Celtic, and it was fitting that Meiklejohn should have shouldered the responsibility.

With regular captain Tommy Muirhead injured, Meiklejohn assumed the role and was outstanding in the first half as Celtic pressurised the Rangers defence. The scores were level at half time. With 10 minutes of the second half gone, an Alan Morton cross from the left picked out Jimmy Fleming and his shot beat precocious Celtic keeper John Thomson and looked to have clearly crossed the line before Celtic captain Willie McStay punched it away. Rangers were awarded a penalty and their supporters held their breath.

Under enormous pressure, ‘Meek’ took a short run up and coolly converted the spot kick, drilling it into the corner of the net. He said after the match, ‘I saw, in a flash, the whole picture of our striving to win the cup. I saw the dire flicks of fortune which had beaten us when we should have won … That ball should have been in the net. It was on the penalty spot instead. If I scored, we would win; if I failed we could be beaten. It was a moment of agony.’

But, with one precise kick, he ended 25 years of hurt and frustration for Rangers, and sent the club on its way back to cup glory. Bob McPhail, who scored the second goal in that famous final, reckoned the game would have been lost had Meiklejohn not scored. But they went on to win 4-0 – a result that has considerable consequences. Rangers were already on a run of supremacy in the league and Celtic were to remain in their shadow for most of the next decade and more.

If ever there was a man who was born to captain Rangers, it was Davie Meiklejohn. Born in Govan, he was one of a long line of great Rangers captains and probably the finest skipper of the pre-war generation. A positionally astute defender and one of manager Bill Struth’s ‘gaffers on the park’, he was a vital member of the highly successful Rangers sides of the 1920s and 1930s. The late Willie Thornton, a Rangers legend himself, paid Meiklejohn the ultimate tribute when he called him ‘the greatest player I ever saw.’

Signed from Maryhill Juniors in 1919, Meek spent 18 years at Ibrox before retiring in 1936. During that time, he amassed an astonishing haul of 12 championship medals and five Scottish Cup badges, adding four more to the one he instigated in 1928.

Meiklejohn also won 15 caps for Scotland and twice captained his country against England, most memorably when he led the Scots to a 2-0 win at Hampden in 1931. The Scots were given no chance as the English crowed about the abilities Everton’s Dixie Dean, but Meiklejohn shackled Dean and the Scots celebrated.

Meiklejohn retired at the end of 1935/36 season and initially became a newspaper columnist, working with the Daily Record. He returned to football as manager of Partick Thistle in 1947. Tragically, he collapsed in the directors’ box at Broomfield after Thistle’s game with Airdrie on 22 August 1959 and died on the way to hospital. He was just 58 years old. Over 2,000 mourners attended his funeral at Craigton cemetery near Ibrox. Former teammate and then Rangers director Alan Morton said: ‘No cause was ever lost when Davie was behind you. He will go down in history as one of the greatest Rangers to wear the colours.’

This article was originally posted here

25th October 1975. 

Jock Shaw, Bob McPhail, Andy Goram and Mark Hateley. Great players for Rangers.

38 years ago.

2 hours ago, Boyne said:

Great player. Great away strip. Looks like Dens Park.

Think it’s Sandy Clark and Ian Redford who are running to celebrate with ‘Coop’.

 

A few from the 1986 Skol Cup Final.

Davie Cooper was coolness personified as he scored the penalty!

 

Edited October 26, 20241 yr by erskblue

The great man makes a tackle v Dunfermline.

And he celebrates after Rangers had beaten Aberdeen 3-2 in the 1988-89 Skol Cup Final.

 

A connection to Chelsea as well.

A great player.

4 hours ago, Boyne said:

A great player.

Both were great players! Looks like Marseille away in 1993.

4 minutes ago, erskblue said:

Both were great players! Looks like Marseille away in 1993.

Yes, both were great players. The 1992-1993 side was a great one. So close to getting to the CL final. The season they beat Leeds home and away. A lot of the media in English media had to eat humble pie as they predicted Leeds would easily beat Rangers. The performances of the players especially Goram and Brown at Elland Road were brilliant.