Friday 30th September, 2016 at 11:49am
You will be aware of my reason for choosing this particular fixture. Yes, that’s right. It reminds us of our last victory at Ibrox. It’s a bitter pill to swallow, isn’t it, because 35 years is a very long time. One small consolation, when trying to come to terms with such a depressing statistic, is the fact that during those 35 years the two teams haven’t been in the same league so very often. Only Thistle fans of a certain vintage will remember 1981 and only contemporaries of my own would be present at the previous Ibrox victory because that was – whisper it! – back in 1957!
The irony of it all was the fact that Thistle weren’t having a good season and despite also beating Rangers 2-0 at Firhill, were relegated at the end of the season. These were in those days 10 teams in the league and two were relegated – very harsh indeed. Play-offs had never been heard of.
Anyway, let’s not detract attention from what was a great performance from every one of the following:- Alan Rough, John Murray, Brian Whittaker, Andy Anderson, Andy Dunlop, Kenny Watson, Donald Park, Ian McDonald, Maurice Johnston, Jamie Doyle, George Clark. Not one of them was affected by the occasion or the atmosphere and they ran out worthy winners against a strong Rangers team:- Stewart, Jardine, Dawson, Forsyth, Jackson, Bett, Cooper, Russell, McAdam, McDonald, Johnstone.
George Clark opened the scoring after 29 minutes and we held the lead, under a lot of pressure, until the interval which provided some breathing space. How would we do in the second-half? Great is the answer to that question. A second Thistle goal came along in 59 minutes, courtesy of a young ginger-haired fellow called Maurice Johnston, scorer of quite a few goals for Thistle. Most of the home crowd had scarcely heard of him. They would get to know him pretty well in subsequent years.
I think those are cracking pictures of Andy Anderson and Jackie Campbell on the front cover. Do you agree?
Robert R
