STV Football years 72: Rangers Cup Winners Cup triumph
A season of two sides for Ibrox men
Rangers made a terrible start to the 1971-72 season. The League Cup section saw them paired with Ayr United, Morton and Celtic. Four victories over Ayr and Morton without the loss of a goal was not enough to progress Rangers to the quarter finals as they lost 2-0 at Celtic Park and 3-0 at Ibrox against Celtic. Mind you, Rangers fans got a laugh out of this when Partick Thistle humbled Celtic 4-1 in the League Cup final.
The league campaign also started horrendously for Rangers, losing four out of their first five matches. Rangers eventually finished 16 points behind champions Celtic (quite the feat in the two points for a win era) and ten points behind second placed Aberdeen.
A dismal domestic showing was completed for Rangers when they were defeated by Hibs in the Scottish Cup semi-final replay. Given that Hibs fans on Scottish Cup final day have had more quiet nights in than John Terry’s wife, this was a bad state of affairs. Hibs were demolished 6-1 in the final by Celtic.
Therefore, the domestic season was a blow-out for Rangers but this was more than made up for by their European showing. The trailers for the show have indicated that Sandy Jardine equated the winning of the Cup Winners Cup to be the equal of Celtic’s achievements in Lisbon. It is unlikely that many around Europe would agree with this but that is not to undermine Rangers achievements on the road to Barcelona.
Stade Rennais, Sporting Lisbon, Torino and Bayern Munich were all dispatched on the road to the Camp Nou, a run that deserves recognition. Playing at the top end of the European competitions in those days saw teams come up against the cream of the crop, even in the Cup Winners Cup and hopefully the show will delve into detail with the bizarre happenings of the Sporting Lisbon tie.
Onto the final and Rangers roared into a three-nil lead with two goals by Johnston and one from Colin Stein. Unlike the final in 1967 when Rangers bemoaned a lack of cutting edge, there was no shortage of striking power in Barcelona.
Dynamo Moscow were not a team to lie down though and two late goals caused consternation amongst the Rangers ranks. Such was the gripping tension, Rangers fans, mistakenly thinking the final whistle had gone, flooded onto the park. This confusion led to a break in play, providing respite and the opportunity for Rangers to regroup.
What started off as celebration quickly descended into full-blown riot as the Spanish police clashed with the travelling support. As always, the opinions of the on-field battle will differ depending on your viewpoint but there is no doubt it put a dampener on what should have been a joyous night for Rangers.
Uefa were in no doubt about what occurred and Rangers were unable to defend their trophy as they were banned, originally for two years but reduced to one on appeal. However for Rangers fans, their view on 1972 remains one of the brightest nights in the club’s history.
The Rangers Wiki gives mention of Franco’s harsh police and the fact that Barcelona were happy to invite Rangers back:
The following article from the Guardian tells the Russian story of what transpired in Barcelona:
So, there you go, two sides to every story and it was certainly a season of two sides for Rangers. Abject misery on the domestic front but joy and celebration in Europe.
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Looking forward to this programme tonight, each episode apart from the Judgment Day one, has been littered with the great and good of the Scottish game. That one had Keith Jackson and Cat Harvey telling me that Rangers treble would never be remembered because of Seville, really?
Some of the old footage and crowd scenes have been a highlight, as well as Jim McLeans, well quite ‘frank’ summing up of the game and individuals within it.
From the darkness of the Ibrox disaster to the light of Barcelona should be quite an event. A time in which defined John Greig as the greatest ever Ranger.
RIP the 66 brave souls who went to watch a game of football, never to return.
Indeed Quagmire, we never mentioned the element of the year before as hopefully the show can do it far better justice than what we could.
Hopefully there will be footage of Rangers run to the final, that really was some list of teams they defeated en route.
I think this site has made its opinion about Jingle Jangle known already….and we rate him higher than Cat Harvey!
Will it show them lifting the cup?
Sandy, Sandy,
On a par with the Lions? Good achievement but gie yersel’ peace. The competition that was so important it doesn’t even exist anymore.
The footage is likely to show a lot of things being lifted.
The first 3 Celtic /Rangers games were played @ Ibrox that season due to Celtics main Stand being under construction
Cheers Danny – was that the time Kenny Dalglish burst onto the scene? He scored a penalty at Ibrox in one of the games he didnt?
I’ve been critical of some of this series, but I must say that tonights show was excellent. Well apart from the so called ‘comedian’ Andy Cameron who should hang his head in shame for his horrible comment. Speaking about the aftermath of the Ibrox disaster, he stated that it somehow ‘diluted the bigotry’ between the two sides. How horribly insensitive from a clown that should leave the Rangers and concentrate on his Panto instead.
Some harrowing footage from the disaster and it was heartwarming to see Stein and the Celtic officials help in the effort with the injured and dying, how he never ripped the reporters head off for his comment about the game in the immediate aftermath, I will never know. Rangers dignity in the aftermath was amazing, to attend every funeral and visit all the injured was above and beyond the call of duty, there should be a memorial service at Ibrox every year for the 66 who never came home that fateful night.
Heady days in Europe for both sides and when you look back at the failures in finals and semi finals for both teams, it really was a golden age that could and should have been so much better. As I said earlier, some of the footage is brilliant to see, some of the haircuts were a sight to behold as well!! As a child born in the 70′s I escaped the long hair era, few on here sport any of the mullets?
As for the journalism, boy do we miss the likes of big Archie and Arthur, real legends of the TV and written media. Archie’s comment about the Rangers fan coming into the broadcasing gantry after the third goal with a bottle of wine to celebrate! Only a Scotsman would be so daft to do such a thing while big Wooof was commentating on the match.
Loved the wee 4-1 interlude of Partick winning the League Cup as well, what an odious wee guy Lou Macari is, always appeared arrogant to me and his comments to the Partick player that day, summed him up for me.
All in all a god programme and as for Peter Capaldi, Celtic supporter or not, if theres a better narrator out there, I’ve yet to hear him, class act.
Well said Lothian, although why it should matter who Capaldi supports is a strange matter.
Yeah, Archie and Arthur, you can throw in Hugh McIlvanney as well – there wasnt the wall to wall coverage then that there is now but you feel that Scottish football fans are being shortchanged in the current era.
Can still remember being a bit star struck seeing Archie McPherson before a Cup final in the mid 80s outside Hampden.
You would hope that some Rangers fans would watch that show and maybe question some of their chants about Stein – not that anything should be used for point scoring from that period of time -a truly horrific situation. As was said by John Greig when thinking about family members reactions “people just went to a football match, how could they not come home?”
As for Andy Cameron – a comedian that isnt funny.
Wee Luigi – another man in Scottish football who Fergus McCann found out.
Next week is the last episode of the series, focusing on the 1982 World Cup
Well I have to say that I enjoyed the show last night, had several tears in my eye’s at the coverage of the disaster, which was covered very sensitively by the broadcaster. I won’t say what I think of Andy Cameron’s comments as I will probably lose it, a disgrace of a man. Looking at some of the headlines from the Daily Record was really sad, the most poignant being ‘Oh no, not ma wee boy’.
Stein was without doubt a prominent figure in Scottish Football and whilst I agree that some of the chants about him are unsavory this warped Old Firm world of ours always offers some form of balance. I have been present at three Old Firm games where the lives of the 66 were tarnished and desecrated by large sections of the Celtic support, you know the self proclaimed ‘Greatest Fans In The World’ I can vividly recall Paul McStay, Pat Bonnar, Peter Grant and Fergus McCann all showing their disgust that they would behave in such a fashion. I’ve always said that the clubs have two living legends in John Greig & Billy McNeil and that those two should look to try and bridge the gap that exists between the two sets of fans, it will never truly recede but those two more than most could hold sway with a large section.
Why has it taken STV so long to start showing programmes such as these? Hopefully BBC follow suit as some of the footage is brilliant, perhaps an hour long show on each club to run through the 70′s/80′s/90′s back in the day when you looked forward to watching Sportscene and Scotsport, sadly these days the coverage and the commentary is way short of their predecessors.
yes 1971/72 great year Celtic did the double semi final of European Cup ,they also beat Rangers 4 times with 3 of the games being @ Ibrox pity about the League Cup Final although they got there revenge on Thistle by beating them 5 – 1 & 3 – 0 in the league although they should have been better prepared as Thistle had already beaten Rangers earlier in a league game.Btw was a Great achievement by Rangers in winning ECWC especially beating Bayern who had a fair percentage of the West German side who won the World Cup in 74, those were the days two European Semis in Glasgow with over 150,000 in attendance.Btw Dalglish scored from penalty spot @ Ibrox think he scored in 3 – 0 game as well.
Danny, those three games that were played at Ibrox, with one of them being a ‘home game’ for Celtic, how was the crowd split? Normally the home team has the advantage with supporters etc
It’s also probably the closest the two teams have ever been in their history with the tragedy obviously having a bearing but apart from that there were some real friendships at that time which started in the 60′s with Baxter and Johnstone.
One of my older friends is of that era that you speak, he has always said he would love Greig & McNeil to write a no holds barred book on their time at their respective clubs, it would be a dynamite read. Fortunately for all involved, the two love their clubs so much that they would never betray them.
Quagmire
what do you mean the chants about Jock stein are “unsavoury?”
They are downright disgusting and gives a true reflection of how low some Rangers fans will go.
Quagmire there was know strict segregation in those days.@ the half way line there was a slight overlap amoungst supporters also you used to see a fair amount of Celtic/Rangers fans going to the game together.Segregation became more enforced in the terraces about 1976apx.With regard to ticket distribution have know idea although i think all gates were split 50/50 after overheads back then, the supporter slit in the ground was usually about 55/45 in favour of the home side as well.
9-67 How savoury were the chants of Richard Gough Child Molester?
Im not on this website to be the one that thinks one support is better than the other, we both have elements that are not too clever, spare me the bull that one side is better than the other.
Toddle off to the Huddle board or Follow Follow if you want that type of discussion and leave the adults to have a chat eh?
Danny – When did the ‘Old Firm’ start keeping their own gate receipts and what was the catalyst for this?
I dont know the exact time but think it was early 80s it was agreed in scotland that the home team got the gate money foe league games Scottish Cup ties are still split 50/50 after overheads.Probably the reason for this was probably down to certain Clubs feeling that it was not fair under the present system .