By David Herd
It might be my advancing years, but the New Year celebrations don’t seem to have the same importance and community spirit as in my young days. When 2025 dawns, there will likely be more folk watching Jools Holland on their television as there will be neighbours appearing unannounced at the front door carrying a half bottle and a lump of coal. But there is one tradition that will still feel like it always has, that of Rangers starting off January by facing their most bitter rivals, the Ne’erday Old Firm game.
And no matter how many drinks we have at The Bells, and no matter the company we enjoy when the clock strikes twelve, the feeling of winning that game is the one thing every Rangers fan needs to set the new year off on the right first foot. The clubs clashing at the start of the year is a tradition that stretches back into the 1890s, and although there have been times when the fixture has moved away from the beginning of January, there has been an Old Firm battle in the first few days of the new year for the majority of time since then. Of course, the 2025 fixture takes place on the most emotional and poignant date in the Rangers calendar, January 2nd will forever be a day of remembrance and sadness ever since that darkest of days back in 1971. Rangers will, as always, properly honour the memory of the 66 before the match, and thoughts will briefly be of something more important than a game of football. But once the whistle sounds to start the match, there will be 50,000 inside the stadium all hoping and praying for a victory to go alongside the numerous great January days of the past.
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But what are the most memorable and most legendary New Year wins over Celtic at Ibrox? There are many to choose from, I’ve been fortunate enough to see plenty since my first-ever New Year game at Ibrox in 1975. In order of when they happened, I’ve tried to put together the Top Ten best of the last 125 years, matches that featured some of the club’s greatest ever teams, most iconic players, and historic occasions. And the list starts with the last-ever New Year game at the original Ibrox stadium, as the Victorian world started looking forward to a new century. We begin way back, in 1899.
RANGERS 4-1 CELTIC, JANUARY 02 1899. THE INVINCIBLES.
Season 1898/99 was a historic one for Rangers, with the club winning the league title for the first time on their own (their only previous championship had been shared with Dumbarton in 1891 after a playoff match ended 2-2). The First Division at the time consisted of ten clubs, with teams playing each other once home and away. The full fixture list of 18 matches seems a very short league season to modern eyes, but the Scottish league football was still less than a decade old, and the major competition of the time was still viewed as being the Scottish Cup, with the authorities completing the league season before the cup tournament took over.
Rangers, under Match Secretary William Wilton and team captain Robert Cumming Hamilton, were in invincible form. With centre forward Hamilton – known in football circles by his initials RC – a goalscorer supreme, they had clinched the title with four games to spare and went into the New Year match with the incredible record of 16 wins from 16 games. A unique record was now within their grasp, going through an entire season without dropping a single point. But there was a major obstacle to this footballing immortality, the visit of Celtic who had won the title the previous season without losing a game with 15 wins and 3 draws. The deposed former champions were determined to dash the dreams of their rivals, and a big holiday crowd of 30,000 packed into the first Ibrox stadium to see who would start the year smiling.
The home support need never have worried, from the first few minutes the outcome was rarely in doubt. This was a Rangers side fired up by the prospect of achieving history, and it took just five minutes for them to take a lead they never looked like losing. A sweeping move was finished off by the predatory Hamilton, the captain then going on to enjoy a wonderful day both individually and as the leader of the team. Winger Johnny Campbell doubled the lead with a shot described in the Glasgow Herald report as “a long shot from well out at the corner flag”. Whether it was spectacular ability or good fortune, the modern fan will never know. Celtic rallied, and pulled a goal back through their prolific forward Sandy McMahon, but any hopes they harboured of a comeback were extinguished before the interval when Hamilton grabbed his second goal within minutes.
The big crowd, who generated gate receipts of just over £1096, would see just the one goal in the second period. A Campbell pass released Hamilton, and the centre forward completed a hat-trick with an unerring finish. This would be the last league hat-trick scored by a Rangers player against Celtic for almost half a century. Rangers coasted to the final whistle, a comprehensive victory completed, and a massive step towards that invincible record. A few days later, they won 3-0 away to Clyde to record their 18th win, and to carve themselves a place in football folklore.
RANGERS 2-1 CELTIC, JANUARY 02 1939. THE RECORD ATTENDANCE.
In the 40 years since that 1899 win, there had been plenty more New Year glory days. In 1920, William Struth became the second manager of the club, and in the decades that followed he built a trophy-winning dynasty at Ibrox, with Rangers dominating Scottish football. Between 1921 and 1937, his Rangers team were crowned champions thirteen times, a trophy haul that had never been seen before in the Scottish game. But season 1937/38 saw the title lost to Celtic, and Struth started to rebuild his team as several players were reaching the veteran stage of their careers. By January 1939, youngsters such as Willie Waddell, Willie Thornton and Willie Woodburn had all broken into the first team, names who would go on to carve their place in the pantheon of Rangers Greats. There also had been the signing of full back Jock Shaw from Airdrie, as Struth began to put in place a future Iron Curtain.
Season 1938/39 quickly developed into a head-to-head battle with Celtic. But greater Rangers consistency meant they had a six-point lead over their New Year visitors, although Celtic had a game in hand. Many were of the view that a win in the Old Firm game would give Rangers one hand on the trophy, and interest in the match was massive. Few, however, could have predicted just how massive. January 2nd 1939, will forever be the day when the biggest ever attendance squeezed into the stadium, a scarcely believable 118,657 official attendance. There were around 30,000 locked out when the gates were closed, prompting the Rangers club secretary W. Rogers Simpson to remark that 15,000 more could have been accommodated in the West Terracing if the fans had “packed themselves in better”!
On the pitch, it was very much a game of two halves. Rangers dominated before the break, and went into the dressing room with a two-goal lead. Left winger David Kinnear opened the scoring after 17 minutes, a man who in later years who become the club’s physiotherapist. And when the reliable Alex Venters doubled the lead six minutes before the interval, it looked as if Rangers would cruise to victory. But an injury to Kinnear early in the second half totally changed the game. In the days before substitutes, the limping Kinnear was a passenger for over 40 minutes, giving Celtic a man advantage as they pushed desperately to get back into the match. The Rangers backline of Dougie Gray, Jimmy Simpson and Jock Shaw were now overworked, but they resolutely repelled wave after wave of Celtic attacks. On the occasions they were beaten, Jerry Dawson, “the Prince of Goalkeepers” was in top form. But with fifteen minutes to play, Celtic finally scored through centre forward Joe Carruth. But that was all the Rangers defence would allow them, and the massive roar at the final whistle told the world that Struth’s men had earned a vital victory. The title was eventually won by the huge margin of eleven points, Rangers lifting the last “official” league title before World War Two.
RANGERS 8-1 CELTIC, JANUARY 2 1943. THE BIGGEST-EVER WIN.
There is much debate at the moment about wartime titles, and whether Rangers should include their 7 “unofficial” championships in the club’s trophy haul. While this discussion would never be happening if it wasn’t for the recent domination of Celtic in collecting silverware, it is one that has some merit as there is no doubt that wartime football between 1939 and 1946 was highly competitive. But the fact that the league had officially put their national title on hold was different to The Great War, as was the decision to split Scotland into regional leagues. Rangers (and Celtic) played in the Western Division in season 1939/40, then the Southern League for the rest of the conflict. And in season 1942/43 the New Year match saw Rangers inflict the biggest-ever Old Firm competitive defeat on their great rivals.
The Ibrox crowd was almost 90,000 less then four years previously, a combination of wartime restricted capacities and recent unsavoury behaviour by Celtic fans in the fixture had seen the authorities limit the attendance to just 30,000. And those in attendance of a Rangers persuasion would have been supremely confident of a win, their team currently held all 5 of the available wartime trophies – the Southern League, the Southern League Cup, the Glasgow Cup, the Glasgow Merchant’s Charity Cup and the Summer Cup – and they were sitting in their usual place on top of the league again. Within five minutes of the first whistle, that confidence had been justified.
Anyone late arriving to Ibrox missed two quickfire Rangers goals, scored by Willie Waddell and Jimmy Duncanson. But Celtic refused to lie down, and they got themselves back into the match after just eleven minutes when winger David Duncan steered the ball past Jerry Dawson. 1943 had started with a hectic Old Firm encounter, and the scoreline remained at 2-1 until half-time, which was in no small part to the heroics of Celtic goalkeeper Willie Miller. The Rangers players trooped off at the interval scarcely believing their domination had been only rewarded by a single goal lead, and there may have some pessimists on the terraces who thought they might pay for their profligacy. Those worries were spectacularly swept away in a second half of goals and controversy.
Inside forward Torry Gillick had finally given Rangers some breathing space when he forced home the third goal not long after the restart, the player suffering a nasty head knock when colliding with the post in the act of scoring. Dazed, and undoubtedly in no real state to continue, Gillick remained on the pitch in the days long before concussion rules and substitutes. He was still trying to regain his senses when Celtic collectively took leave of theirs.
With an hour on the clock, a George Young free kick from fully 45 yards sailed into the Celtic net, as Miller and Waddell competed to get on the end of it. The Celtic defenders were convinced Waddell got the slightest of touches, and that he was in an offside position, but the winger was adamant he hadn’t touched the ball and the referee agreed with him. The goal stood, and defender Malcom MacDonald’s jostling of the referee eventually saw him sent from the field for dissent. Three goals down with ten men, it was surely time for the Celtic players to look to keep things respectable. But their discipline had totally deserted them, and just three minutes later Rangers were facing just nine men. Celtic’s Matthew Lynch was penalised for a foul on Duncanson, and reacted with a torrent of abuse towards the match official. The referee’s patience had been tested to the limit, and Lynch was sent to the dressing room when ignoring please to calm down. Over 25 minutes to play, would Rangers go out to humiliate their rivals, or play out time to avoid any further unrest from their opponents on the field and on the terraces? The answer to that was soon apparent.
Waddell gleefully smacked home the Rangers fifth after a brilliant pacy run took him clear on the goalkeeper, with number six arriving soon afterwards from the penalty spot through Young. In the closing stages, Gillick rejoined the fray and grabbed two more goals, despite one newspaper reporter writing that the player was operating “by instinct” since his injury. His hat-trick was the first in a league fixture since that RC Hamilton treble in 1899, and it rounded off a memorable 8-1 thrashing.
The two Celtic players who had been dismissed both received lengthy suspensions for their behaviour, which had sparked off some significant trouble in the small crowd of Celtic fans inside the stadium. Rangers, meantime, cruised on to retain their championship yet again. Whether those titles are officially recognised or not, the scoreline most certainly is. Rangers had enjoyed the biggest-ever win in the fixture, and it is most likely a record that will never be broken.
RANGERS 4-1 CELTIC, JANUARY 1 1955. THE LAST HAT-TRICK.
In January 1949, Jimmy Duncanson scored three goals in the New Year fixture at Ibrox in a comfortable 4-0 rout. This demolition continued the Struth domination of Celtic, but by season 1954/55 things had changed. Mr Struth had retired in the summer, and his successor was former player and ex-East Fife and Preston manager Scot Symon. His first ever New Year clash with Celtic still holds a special place in the Rangers history books, as it was the last time a Rangers player completed a league hat-trick in an Old Firm encounter.
The season started in disgraceful fashion, the SFA deciding to ban the great Rangers and centre half Willie Woodburn sine die after an ordering off against Stirling Albion in August. Symon would need to try to regain the league title without the man widely regarded as the best central defender ever to wear the blue jersey. Going into the Ne’erday match, neither Old Firm club sat at the top of the table, with Aberdeen ending 1954 in the title lead. It looked like a match neither side could afford to lose, and a crowd of 65,000 were inside the ground to see who would maintain a title challenge.
The early stages saw Rangers on top, with Celtic centre half Jock Stein struggling to cope with the pace and power of Billy Simpson, the leader of the Rangers attack. And after just nine minutes, Stein’s nightmare start gifted Rangers the lead. His hopelessly miscued clearance fell straight to the feet of Rangers forward Derek Grierson, who immediately freed Simpson with a perfect pass. The Ulsterman slotted home with ease. For the next twenty minutes Stein and his fellow Celtic defenders were under siege, their goal leading a charmed life on numerous occasions. Another goal looked inevitable, but after half an hour it arrived at the other end.
A referee with a wonderful surname, Mr Faultless, penalised captain George Young for a foul on Jimmy Walsh just outside the box. It looked a harsh award, but Celtic’s Willie Fernie wasn’t complaining and he curled a superb free kick into the corner of George Niven’s net. Few in the crowd could believe the half-time score of 1-1, Rangers should have had the game buried. But in the second half, they put things right. And the goal that put Rangers back in front was one that would have graced any occasion. In fact, it was described years later by none other than Sir Alex Ferguson as the best goal he had ever seen.
The scorer was South African winger Johnny Hubbard, a man immortalised as The Penalty King due to his incredible spot kick record, but a player who scored many goals from open play too. There was just 18 minutes to play, and Rangers had just seen Celtic’s goal survive yet again when John Prentice thumped a shot off the post with goalkeeper Andrew Bell helpless. Thoughts of “one of those days” were growing until Hubbard stepped in. He picked up possession thirty yards from his own goal and set off on the most remarkable mazy run. He glided past five increasingly desperate Celtic tackles, the ball seemingly glue to the end of his boot. Once past Stein, he had just Bell to beat, and the winger nonchalantly rounded him too and rolled it into the empty net. It was mesmerising, it was brilliant, and it was a moment nobody in the 65,000 crowd would ever forget. It also was the start of an amazing seventeen-minute hat-trick.
Celtic heads went down, and Rangers went for the kill. And they extended their lead after 80 minutes with a role reversal goal. Simpson drifted out wide, took possession and burst clear of the Celtic defence, showing he could be a winger as well as a centre forward. His perfectly judged back post cross had Bell beaten, and there was Hubbard to meet the ball and knock it into the empty net as he briefly took up Simpson’s usual role. At 3-1, the Celtic end started to empty, and many of them missed the last action of the day. In the dying moments, Mr Faultless pointed to the spot after Grierson was chopped down in the box. There was never going to be anyone other than Hubbard taking it, and the ball was never going anywhere but the Celtic net. Rangers didn’t catch Aberdeen that season, ending Symon’s first campaign without a major trophy. But in his first Ne’erday match as manager, his team had made history, as 70 years later there still hasn’t been another Rangers player to score three in an Old Firm league game. Mr McCoist did it in two cup finals, though!
RANGERS 4-0 CELTIC, JANUARY 1 1963. THE YEAR OF EASY EASY.
By season 1962/63, Symon had built a Rangers team that is still revered to this day. Although not the league champions at the start of 1963 after a late slump the previous season had handed the title to an excellent Dundee team, Rangers were Scottish Cup holders and league leaders and had won every New Year Old Firm game since the arrival of the manager in 1954. The 55,000 who braved the winter cold to travel to Ibrox were expecting to see another Rangers victory, and it was delivered in as comprehensive a manner as any New Year victory that had ever been enjoyed.
Rangers were without two hugely important players due to injury, but the loss of Ian McMillan and Willie Henderson was offset by the inclusion of two Hall of Fame stars in Harold Davis and Alex Scott. On a rock hard pitch covered in sand, the home team were a class above their Parkhead visitors, with the victory never in doubt after Davis scored with a deflected shot in the eleventh minute. With the imperious Jim Baxter seemingly immune to the slippery conditions, this was the type of one-sided destruction that the Rangers support came to expect in the early 1960s. The only surprise was how long it took to kill the game off, Celtic somehow surviving until the final quarter of the match without suffering any further loss. But, finally, in the 67th minute Rangers saw their total dominance rewarded by a second goal. Goalkeeper Frank Haffey was unable to hold a stinging Ralph Brand shot, and there was the ever-reliable Jimmy Millar to tuck away the rebound.
From that moment, it was a case of how many. 1963 was only six years after the humiliating League Cup final defeat to Celtic, and their fans tried to forget the one-sided destruction before them by chanting “seven-one” at their Blue counterparts. But they got a simple chant returned towards them, one that became commonplace at Old Firm games in 1963. The Rangers response was the singing of “Easy Easy”, something the Celtic fans would endure at Hampden a few months later in the Scottish Cup final. They also had to endure two more Rangers goals in the closing stages, as the scoreline took on a more realistic representation of the match.
Haffey was blameless four minutes after that second goal, when a youngster scored his first-ever Old Firm goal. Inside forward John Greig, at the age of 20, smashed home the third and signalled the emptying of the Celtic end of the stadium. Those in green who decided to stay to the bitter end saw Davie Wilson complete the scoring ten minutes from the end, the winger celebrating as if he had just scored the winner in a European Cup final.
This Old Firm demolition would be the last Rangers game for over two months, as Scottish football went into hibernation due to a lengthy period of freezing weather. When the snow and ice finally relented, Rangers would go on to complete a league and Scottish Cup double, before lifting all three domestic trophies the following season. It was indeed, all so easy.
RANGERS 2-1 CELTIC, JANUARY 6 1973. THE LAST-MINUTE WINNER.
It is said that a year is a long time in politics. In the Scottish football of early 1973, the ten years since January 1963 seemed a very long time for Rangers fans. Celtic, under Jock Stein, had become the dominant force in the country, and their fans had enjoyed seeing their team lift the vast majority of the available silverware in the preceding years. This had included the last seven league titles, and Celtic had only tasted defeat once in any Old Firm match so far in the seventies. In fact, they had won all the previous six meetings between the teams in all competitions. Despite being the holders of the European Cup-Winners’ Cup, Rangers were very much second best in their home city, and manager Jock Wallace was trying to stem this green tide in his first season in charge. As the day of the first Old Firm clash of 1973 dawned, Wallace saw his side sitting in third place in the table, a point behind Celtic despite having played three games more, and also behind an excellent Hibs side who also had a game in hand. Anything other than a win would surely mean another season without the title for the long-suffering Rangers support.
Wallace was starting to put his own stamp on the team, the two Barcelona goalscorers Colin Stein and Willie Johnston having moved south, with recent arrivals Tom Forsyth and Quinton Young in the starting eleven. There was also a spine of exciting young talent in the team, with teenagers Derek Johnstone and Derek Parlane in the centre of defence and attack, Parlane’s goals helping the fans get over the loss of their hero Stein. But until they could beat Celtic, things would still feel far from where they needed to be. This would be the day it arrived.
1973 was the year that Rangers were celebrating the club’s centenary (it is only relatively recently that the club’s foundation was confirmed as 1872 and not 1873). This would be the perfect way to start the celebrations. A tight first half saw Rangers go into the break with the lead, a goal that arrived in 24 minutes. Alex MacDonald was brought down in the Celtic box, referee Mr Paterson having no doubt when pointing to the spot. Young striker Parlane took the responsibility, but saw his weak kick saved by goalkeeper Evan Williams. The Celtic stopper was out of luck, however, as the ball then rebounded back to Parlane and he slotted it home at the second attempt. The majority of the 70,000 crowd were happy, but their smiles were wiped away just six minutes after the restart. A shot by Dixie Deans looked to be a straightforward save for Peter McCloy, but a big deflection off the head of defender Dave Smith sent the ball past the helpless goalkeeper.
Both sides then had chances, but when the match entered the final minute it appeared that it would end all-square. Then came the dramatic finish. Parlane was stopped in his attempt to run into the Celtic penalty area, but he managed to retain possession and slip the ball out to Young on the right wing. His teasing cross was met by the head of Alfie Conn, whose header floated above Williams and dropped into the corner of the net. Ibrox went delirious, and Rangers had won. The team then went on a magnificent unbeaten run, which saw them only just fail to win the title by a single point, before John Greig lifted the Scottish Cup in early May after a legendary 3-2 win over Celtic. The first two Rangers goals that day were scored by the two New Year scoring heroes.
RANGERS 3-0 CELTIC, JANUARY 4 1975. YOU’LL NEVER WIN TEN IN A ROW.
By season 1974/75, Celtic had won nine successive league championships and there was a new young generation of Rangers fans who had never enjoyed the euphoria of a title party. And while they did see their team win the first league derby of the season at Parkhead, defeats to both Hibs and Airdrie in the month before Christmas had handed the title initiative back across the city. Celtic had a two-point lead as they hoped to go on to win a tenth championship in a row, a feat that fans of both clubs were increasingly obsessing about. Over 71,000 flocked to Ibrox to see which team could strike a telling blow in the race for a league flag that seemed to have even more of an edge than usual. There was also the fact that the league winners would be the last ever team to win the First Division, the Scottish League reconstructing the leagues following this campaign with the new ten club Premier Division starting in August.
On a muddy Ibrox playing surface, Jock Wallace’s men picked the perfect occasion to find their best form, and they simply demolished their visitors. It took just six minutes for them to deliver the first blow. Tommy McLean showed great footwork out on the right wing to gain a yard of space, allowing him to flight in a cross of pinpoint accuracy. His wonderful crossing ability was tailor-made for Derek Johnstone, the greatest aerial threat in the Scottish game. DJ rose majestically to power home his header past Ally Hunter, and the New Year celebrations were underway.
It wasn’t all one-way, Celtic did have a couple of decent opportunities before half-time, although they had referee John Paterson to thank for just being that one goal behind at the interval. On the brink of half-time, Alex MacDonald scored what looked to be a perfectly good second goal for Rangers, only to see it disallowed for a mystery foul in the build-up. But this was merely a stay of execution. McLean was in unstoppable form, his close control and accurate passing on a gluepot surface standing out like a beacon. At just 5 feet 4 inches, the smallest man on the pitch was standing head and shoulders above the rest. And in the 49th minute, he got the goal his display deserved. MacDonald’s through ball cut open the Celtic defence, McLean showed great pace and sure footedness to leave three defenders in his wake, before he sent a deadly accurate low shot into the bottom corner of the net.
Celtic were beaten, and they knew it. There was still time for Rangers to rub some extra salt in their wounds, when Parlane rose at the back post to send a looping header over Hunter and into the net. The cross was, of course, delivered by McLean. The terraces at the Celtic end were being deserted long before the end, with the ecstatic Rangers fans telling them in no uncertain terms to go home. The three-goal margin of victory was enough to life Rangers into top spot in the table, and they never looked back from that day. An iconic Colin Stein goal at Easter Road sealed the title with four games to spare, a championship that was magic, you know.
RANGERS 2-0 CELTIC, JANUARY 1 1987. THE MIDFIELD MASTERCLASS.
In April 1986, Rangers under the leadership of David Holmes, stunned Scottish football by sacking Jock Wallace after an unsuccessful second spell in charge, and replacing him in the manager’s office with the Scotland international team captain. Graeme Souness became the club’s first player-manager, and Scottish football would never be the same again. His first season in charge saw interest in the game in Scotland rocket, attendances rise dramatically, and a Rangers title challenge for the first time in years.
Souness started off with immediate success in Old Firm matches. By New Year, he was still undefeated in the derby, with a 1-0 home win and 1-1 draw at Parkhead in the league plus an unforgettable 2-1 win in the League Cup final as he lifted major silverware at the first attempt. But his team were still looking for consistency, and five league defeats by the start of December meant Celtic had a healthy lead of five points going into the New Year fixture. But Rangers fans were growing increasingly confident in their side, who had enjoyed a series of solid wins in the festive period without conceding a goal, and who had watched new signing Graham Roberts make an impressive debut a few days earlier in the win over Dundee United. A win on Ne’erday would signal a real momentum shift.
It was a horrendous day, driving wind and snow showers battering Glasgow all day. But the capacity Ibrox crowd quickly forgot about the weather, they were warmed by a superb display of midfield mastery by their manager. Souness was at his arrogant and aggressive best, and Celtic simply had no answer. He snapped into tackles, he sprayed passes, and he totally intimidated his Parkhead opponents. With the creative genius of Davie Cooper on the left wing enjoying an almost limitless supply of passes from the middle of the park, the Celtic backline was under constant pressure. And by the interval they had cracked, twice.
Both goals were supplied by Cooper. First, in 28 minutes, his corner was headed on by captain Terry Butcher then buried behind Pat Bonner by striker Robert Fleck from close range. Then just four minutes later, yet another pinpoint Souness pass found the winger, whose cross was dropped by Bonner in the swirling wind. That was a fatal error with arch-goalscorer Ally McCoist around. Bonner was immediately picking the ball out of the net after Super Ally smashed the ball gleefully into the unguarded goal. The second half was something of a procession. Celtic unable to break the Souness stranglehold in the middle, and when they made the occasion foray forward they found the English pairing of Butcher and Roberts an impenetrable barrier. Perhaps the only complaint Rangers fans had at the end was their team had not fully extended themselves to hunt for more goals near the end when Celtic’s heads were down.
It was a pivotal day, despite still being in second place Rangers were flying high. Before long, they had hit the front, and they would stay there for the rest of the season. A first league title in nine long years was clinched at Pittodrie in early May, the scenes of jubilation imprinted in the memory of all who were lucky enough to be there. The foundations for a Rangers nine-in-a-row were being laid by Souness and his assistant Walter Smith, a man who would be the boss by the time that holy grail had been delivered.
RANGERS 3-1 CELTIC, JANUARY 2 1997. ERIK BO AND NINE IN A ROW.
The 1990s were dominated by Rangers, and by season 1996/97, the only thing that seemed to matter was nine-in-a-row. European results were not as they should have been, but Walter Smith’s team was relentlessly racking up the titles domestically, and Celtic under Tommy Burns were growing increasingly desperate to stop it happening. But Smith’s band of hardened winners had the upper hand over them when it mattered, winning the first two Old Firm league clashes and going into the 1997 with a healthy eleven point lead at the top, albeit having played two games more than Celtic. Most observers thought only an away win could breathe life back into the Parkhead title hopes, and fate seemed to step in to lend them a hand when the Rangers preparations for the match were ruined by the outbreak of a flu bug in the camp.
Team captain Richard Gough and Scotland’s most devastating attacking footballer Brian Laudrup were both ruled out due to illness. Key men such as goalkeeper Andy Goram, predatory goals machine Ally McCoist, and midfield maestro Paul Gascoigne were all included in the side but were suffering the effects of the virus. If ever it looked like Burns could get a win when it mattered against Rangers, this looked his best chance. But his dreams of Ibrox success were dealt a Hammer blow after just nine minutes. Rangers were awarded a free kick almost thirty yards out, seemingly too far out to offer the chance of a strike at goal. But the left foot of Jorg Albertz carried such power that such a distance presented no obstacle, and he unleashed a low shot of such devastating power and accuracy that is was in the net behind Stewart Kerr before the goalkeeper or most of the 50,000 crowd were able to believe what had happened.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the longer the game went on the more the weakened Rangers team seemed to wilt, and when Italian hothead Paulo Di Canio equalised midway through the second half most in the home support feared the worst. Smith responded by taking off the struggling Gascoigne and McCoist and introducing Dutchman Peter van Vossen and Danish forward Erik Bo Andersen. It would prove to be inspired.
With just seven minutes left, Celtic’s Jackie McNamara was dispossessed by the eager Albertz, who then thread a perfect pass into the Celtic box. Supersub Andersen was on it in a flash and efficiently dispatched the ball past Kerr for 2-1. Celtic threw men forward, and had a goal disallowed, before they were killed off in the last minute. Again Albertz was the provider, and again Andersen the lethal finisher. The abiding memory of the pandemonium that followed was the sight of manager Smith celebrating in front of the Enclosure, his clenched fists pumping with the smile of a man who knew that history was on the verge of being created.
Celtic were defeated again in the last of the Old Firm league encounters in March, giving Rangers their first and only ever clean sweep of the four fixtures in a season. Then, in a legendary night in May at Tannadice, a Brian Laudrup header gave Rangers the win they needed to clinch that ninth successive title. The team of 1996/97 were immortal.
RANGERS 1-0 CELTIC, JANUARY 2 2021. IT STILL WON’T BE TEN.
When Rangers appointed Steven Gerrard as manager in 2018, he was taking on an enormous task. The previous years had seen Rangers return to the top flight after the financial calamity of 2012 and the subsequent long term damage this did to the club on and off the pitch. Celtic had enjoyed a period of unprecedented dominance with their only realistic rivals now severely weakened. It took time for Gerrard to bring together a squad capable of competing again, but they collapsed dismally in January 2020 after a New Year win at Parkhead, and many were doubting Gerrard’s abilities when season 2019/20 was stopped early due to the global pandemic. But many were also angry and incredulous at how the football authorities had handed Celtic a title they hadn’t yet won, and the new season would begin behind closed doors with no supporters allowed into sporting venues as part of the Covid response.
Gerrard had won his first Ibrox New Year game in his first season, but it had been followed by another series of hopeless results. The mentality of his squad was being doubted by friends and foes, but in the surreal atmosphere of empty stadia, Gerrard’s men roared as never before. With Celtic under Neil Lennon aiming to win a tenth title running after their gift from Neil Doncaster, the battle to stop The Ten went mainly online for fans as the players adjusted to the strangest of circumstances. Rangers went on a magnificent run from the opening day, not only putting together an unbeaten run of results, but also an unprecedented series of clean sheets as they snuffed out opposition forward lines. A comfortable win at Parkhead in the first Old Firm fixture sent them clear at the top, and by the end of December the gap to Celtic had grown to a scarcely believable sixteen points. While Lennon’s team had played three games fewer, this looked like a lead that Rangers would surely not relinquish, especially if they avoided defeat at Ibrox on January 2nd. The match, however, was not the first priority of the day for all connected with Rangers, as this was the 50th anniversary of the terrible disaster of 1971. The club marked this sombre occasion with the reverence it deserved, with thoughts only turning to the small matter of an Old Firm match once the wreaths lad been laid and the silence observed.
The match itself was hardly a classic. In fact, Celtic were the better team for most of the opening period and could have been at least a goal in front by the interval. The fact that the match was goalless was mainly down to the inspired performance of veteran Rangers goalkeeper Allan McGregor. His early save from Odsonne Edouarde was brilliant, but it was overshadowed by a quite incredible fingertip reach to a Leigh Griffiths shot that looked a scorer all the way. Gerrard looked unhappy when the teams left the pitch, his team had looked nervy and never comfortable. He introduced Ianis Hagi at the break for Kemar Roofe and this change worked perfectly. Rangers had far greater midfield possession, and were now at last looking like the team who had blown everyone else away this season. And in the space of eight minutes, the match turned decisively in their favour.
On 62 minutes, Alfredo Morelos raced clear only to be rugby tackled to the ground by the desperate Nir Bitton. The Israeli defender was shown red, and Celtic were down to ten. Their hopes of Ten were all but over a few minutes later, when a Joe Aribo corner deflected into the net off midfielder Callum McGregor. It wasn’t pretty, but it was all Rangers needed. They saw out the rest of the match with minimum drama, and with a 19-point lead secured, the number now on our minds was 55.
That last game of the Top Ten was just four years ago, but like all the others in the list it feels like a lifetime has come and gone since. This Top Ten is full of truly great names in Rangers history, players and managers who ensured Rangers were the top football club in the country, the biggest and the best. We are now about to watch the latest Ibrox Ne’erday game in a season where Rangers are already 14 points behind a Celtic team who haven’t lost a meaningful Old Firm match in years. There are worrying signs that Rangers as a club, and too many fans in our enormous worldwide support, are getting accustomed to inferiority. Rangers are not, and never will be, a “project”. It might take years for us to be able to again boast of being “the most successful team in football” as that proud record is gone. It will only return if we restore and rebuild Rangers FC to it’s rightful place atop Scottish football, and that restoration has to begin with the non-negotiable demand of a return to the standards the club is built upon. Nothing but first is good enough. The club is more important than any individual. Every game and every point is important, and we will fight till the day is done. None of that will save this league season, but all of it will at least get the support back onside, and will help start building new memories instead of reminiscing of past glories. Our past is where we must look to create our future. But we need to start making history again instead of just remembering it.
