Читать книгу Ally McCoist - Rangers Legend - Alistair Aird - Страница 13

Rangers Football Club is simply huge, a venerable institution in the eyes of many. Founded in 1872 by a group of rowers on the banks of the River Clyde, they have since gone on to achieve unparalleled success in Scotland, winning a world record fifty-four League Championship titles, the Scottish Cup on thirty-three occasions, while the League Cup has found its way into the majestic Ibrox trophy room a record twenty-seven times. In addition to that considerable haul, the club also collected the European Cup-Winners’ Cup in 1972.

The club was initially called Argyll until one of the founder members, Moses McNeil, found the name Rangers in a book about English rugby and decided to christen the new team with that identity. The first matches were contested at Fleshers Haugh on Glasgow Green, but the team soon moved to Kinning Park, which lay south of the River Clyde and beat Vale of Leven 2-1 in their first match there on 2 September 1876, thanks to goals from Willie Dunlop and Alex Marshall. The 1876/77 season also saw Rangers reach the Scottish Cup final for the first time. They took on Vale of Leven and three matches were required to decide the winners, with Vale eventually picking up the trophy after winning the second replay by three goals to two.

Rangers were beaten Cup finalists again in 1879, with Vale of Leven once more the victors after Rangers refused to play in the replay due to a contentious refereeing decision in the first game that denied the Light Blues a second goal in a match that ended 1-1. Rangers did, however, gain some revenge a month later when they met Vale of Leven in the final of the Glasgow Merchant’s Charity Cup and won 2-1; it was a result that gave the club their first-ever piece of silverware.

In 1886, Rangers competed in the English FA Cup, defeating Everton away from home en route to the semi-finals, at which stage they were clinically despatched from the tournament by an Aston Villa side who they had thumped 7-1 in 1882. Villa won 3-1 at Nantwich Road in Crewe and went on to win the trophy when they defeated West Bromwich Albion in the final. This was Rangers’ one and only foray into the English FA Cup.

The following year the club moved to the first Ibrox Park situated in Govan on the south side of the city, although they got off to a somewhat inauspicious start at their new home when the high-flying English outfit of that era, Preston North End, gate-crashed the housewarming party and blitzed the new owners by eight goals to one. Later that season the seeds of the Old Firm rivalry were planted when Rangers and newly formed Celtic, who played their games in the East End of Glasgow, clashed for the first time. Celtic claimed first blood, emerging victorious by five goals to two.

In 1890 the Scottish League was formed. Rangers defeated Hearts 5-2 in their first-ever league fixture and by the end of that inaugural year shared the championship with Dumbarton. Both clubs were tied on twenty-nine points after eighteen matches and a playoff match was ordered to decide the champions. When it ended in a 2-2 draw, the league’s governing body declared the pair as joint champions. Under today’s rules, however, Dumbarton would actually have won the league outright due to a superior goal difference, but such rules were not yet in place so the trophy was shared.

Over the next eight years, Rangers, managed by William Wilton and captained by Davy Mitchell, enjoyed mixed success in the league, but they did win the Scottish Cup for the first time in 1893/94, beating Celtic 3-1 in the final at Hampden. When Rangers did win the championship again, in 1898/99, they did so in quite spectacular fashion, winning all eighteen of their league matches and scoring a remarkable seventy-nine goals in the process. R.C. Hamilton was the top goalscorer, netting twenty-one goals in eighteen league appearances.

On 30 December 1899, with the game’s popularity increasing exponentially, Rangers moved home for what would be the final time, moving to the second Ibrox Stadium which is still their home today. It is a mere stone’s throw from the first one.

Rangers quickly adapted to their new surroundings and were the dominant force in Scotland as the world waved goodbye to the nineteenth century and ushered in the twentieth, winning the league title for four successive years between 1899 and 1902. This spate of success was then followed by a barren run in the championship, and the trophy did not return to Govan until 1910/11, although Rangers lost out to rivals Celtic in a playoff in 1905 and won the Scottish Cup in 1903. By now, the league had been expanded, with nineteen teams taking part, and Rangers were never far away from the top of the Scottish game. By the time hostilities commenced in the First World War in 1914, they were among the most successful sides in the country, having claimed the Scottish Cup four times and the League Championship on eight occasions.

In 1920, manager Wilton was tragically killed in a boating accident, and Bill Struth, who had been a trainer at Ibrox since 1914, took his place in the manager’s office. Struth was an austere man who lived by the maxim that no player was greater than the club and he proceeded to enjoy a period of unparalleled success at Ibrox. A strict disciplinarian, he insisted that his players showed the highest possible standards wherever they went. He was in the manager’s chair for thirty-four years and during that time he oversaw eighteen League Championship victories, ten Scottish Cup wins (including a 4-0 thrashing of Celtic in 1928 that busted a twenty-five year hoodoo in the competition), and two successes in the Scottish League Cup, a competition that was born in 1946. He was the man who brought legendary players such as Alan Morton, Bob McPhail and Willie Waddell to Ibrox, and in the 1948/49 season, he became the first manager to lead Rangers to the domestic Treble of League Championship, Scottish Cup and Scottish League Cup.

When Struth retired in 1954, a former player, James Scotland Symon, took over the reins. After two barren seasons, Symon, known to everyone as Scot, continued where his predecessor had left off, sustaining the wave of glory that was sweeping through Ibrox by winning a further six league titles, the Scottish Cup in 1960, 1962, 1963, 1964, and 1966, and the League Cup on four occasions.

Symon, who managed the club to its second Treble in the 1963/64 season, was the first manager to lead Rangers in European competition when he took charge of the European Champions Cup match against OGC Nice of France in October 1956. The club enjoyed some decent runs in their early continental sojourns, reaching the semi-finals of the Champions Cup, regarded as the premier European club competition, in 1959/60 (they lost heavily to eventual runners-up Eintracht Frankfurt), before becoming the first British club to contest a European final when they met Italian side Fiorentina in the 1960/61 European Cup-Winners’ Cup. Symon’s men lost out 4-1 on aggregate, but they were finalists again in 1966/67, only to see success elude them when Bayern Munich won 1-0 after extra-time in Nuremberg.

Symon’s thirteen-year tenure was not without its trials and tribulations, though. In the League Cup final of 1957, his side were humiliated and humbled 7-1 by rivals Celtic and, in January 1967, he oversaw arguably the most ignominious moment in the club’s history when the Light Blues were dumped out of the Scottish Cup in the opening round by lowly namesakes Berwick Rangers of the Second Division. Within months of the latter, Symon was relieved of his duties by club chairman John Lawrence, albeit with Lawrence sending a business associate who had no formal connection with Rangers to inform the deposed manager that he would no longer be in charge.

Symon was replaced at the helm by his assistant, Davie White, as the Rangers hierarchy tried to formulate a plan to wrestle the balance of power back from Celtic, who were emerging as a real force once again under the stewardship of Jock Stein. White was part of a new breed of managers who were beginning to make their mark on the Scottish game. He was what was termed a ‘tracksuit manager’, someone who was much more heavily involved with training and tactics than previous incumbents had been. He was appointed by the board in a bid to freshen things up at Ibrox, but, at just thirty-four years of age, was arguably too young for such a high-pressure job. Within two years he too had been sacked and, until the ill-fated tenure of Paul Le Guen in 2006, White was the only manager to take charge of Rangers and not win a major trophy.

In December 1969, Willie Waddell, a stalwart of the halcyon days of the forties and fifties, was appointed as the fifth manager in Rangers’ history. Latterly Waddell had been a respected journalist, but he also had managerial experience on his CV following a successful spell in charge of Kilmarnock, during which he had led the club to three cup finals (the Scottish Cup in 1960 and the League Cup in 1960 and 1962) and capped it all by masterminding the Ayrshire side’s dramatic victory in the First Division championship in the 1964/65 season.

His return to Ibrox roused Rangers and less than a year after taking charge he led the club to their first trophy since 1966 when a goal from sixteen-year-old Derek Johnstone was sufficient to beat Celtic 1-0 at Hampden in the League Cup final. Among the crowd of 106,263 that October afternoon was a young eight-year-old by the name of Ally McCoist, who was attending one of his first football matches. The match-winner swiftly developed into one of McCoist’s heroes – his other idol from that era was Colin Stein – and, some years later, the pair became close friends.

Although Rangers continued to find the recipe for league success elusive, Waddell’s team made their mark in Europe in the 1971/72 season when they competed in the European Cup-Winners’ Cup. Having overcome Rennes of France, Portuguese side Sporting Lisbon, and Italian cracks Torino in the opening rounds, Rangers faced old foes Bayern Munich in the two-leg semi-final with the prospect of a third European final at stake if they won the tie. After drawing 1-1 in Germany, Waddell’s men triumphed 2-0 at Ibrox and went through to face Moscow Dynamo in the final at the Nou Camp in Barcelona. It was to be a case of third time lucky for Rangers, as goals from Colin Stein and a double from Willie Johnston were enough to stave off a late fight back by the Russians and hand Rangers their first, and to date only, piece of European silverware.

Shortly after the triumph in Barcelona, Waddell resigned from his post as manager, moving ‘upstairs’ to take on the role of general manager, and his first-team coach, Jock Wallace, replaced him in the manager’s office. Wallace, a former jungle fighter, had kept goal for Berwick Rangers when they had shocked their more illustrious namesakes 1-0 in the opening round of the 1967 Scottish Cup. And, after securing the Scottish Cup in his first season in charge and enduring a barren season in 1973/74, Wallace guided his troops to the championship the following season and brought arch-rivals Celtic’s quest for ten league titles in a row to a shuddering halt. In the three seasons that followed, he sandwiched a bleak, trophy-less season in 1976/77 with two glorious domestic Trebles before departing in the summer of 1978 after a rift with general manager Willie Waddell.

Wallace was replaced at the helm by club captain John Greig, who inherited an ageing squad from his predecessor (and one that was littered with many of his former team-mates), but initially it looked as if he would continue the success of the mid-to-late seventies, securing a Cup double in his first season and coming to within a whisker of an unprecedented back-to-back Treble, only losing out to Celtic in the title race when two goals in the final ten minutes of the final Old Firm game gave the Parkhead side the win they needed to clinch the Premier Division championship.

In the remaining years of his managerial tenure, John Greig never came as close again to leading Rangers to the championship, and over the course of the next three seasons the Light Blues’ fortunes declined alarmingly. In 1979/80, they slumped to a fifth-place finish in the league (their lowest final position since 1965) and lost both of the cups they had won the previous season. They fared little better in 1980/81, winning the Scottish Cup but ending up third in the league, and in 1981/82 they won the League Cup but lost heavily to Aberdeen in the Scottish Cup final and once again finished third in the title race.

Thus, it is fair to say that the Rangers squad Ally McCoist joined up with ahead of the 1983/84 season was a group of players desperately short of confidence and struggling to maintain the trophy-enriched history of this great Scottish institution. The season before McCoist’s arrival (1982/83), had been a barren one for Rangers and represented the nadir of Greig’s tenure as manger. Rangers finished fourth in the league, a massive eighteen points behind champions Dundee United, and lost in both domestic cup finals, falling 2-1 to Celtic in the League Cup and 1-0 to Alex Ferguson’s Aberdeen in the Scottish Cup.

United’s championship win was further evidence that a new force was emerging in Scotland to challenge the Old Firm of Rangers and Celtic. Along with Aberdeen, who had won the title in 1979/80 and the Scottish Cup in 1981 and 1982, they had finally broken the Old Firm hegemony on the League Championship. Their duel triumphs had been the first by a club other than Rangers or Celtic since 1964/65, when Kilmarnock had won the title on goal average under Willie Waddell. The emergence of this force from the North, dubbed the ‘New Firm’, was bad news for Rangers manager John Greig.

Greig was (and still is for that matter) a true legend down Govan way. He had spent seventeen glorious years at Ibrox as a player, playing in over 750 games for the club and had been part of three Treble-winning squads in 1963/64, 1975/76 and 1977/78, the latter two as captain. He had skippered the club to their solitary European success in the shape of the 1972 European Cup-Winners’ Cup and had also remained resolute as Celtic swept all before them in the mid-sixties and early seventies. He was held in high esteem among the Rangers community, but that lofty status was now being challenged by the increasingly poor displays on the field and lack of trophies in the trophy cabinet.

The nature of the job at Ibrox meant that Greig consistently had to deliver the Holy Grail of the League Championship, as regular success in the two domestic cups was never going to be enough to placate the club’s unforgiving supporters. By the time McCoist arrived in Govan, the championship trophy had not rested on the Ibrox sideboard for five long seasons, a lifetime in the eyes of the Rangers faithful. The natives were becoming increasingly restless, with Rangers not just trailing in the wake of bitter rivals Celtic, but also lagging behind Aberdeen and United.

Greig now had to plot to overcome the top trio and, having been given the dreaded vote of confidence by the Rangers board of directors in the close season, was acutely aware that the 1983/84 season would be a colossal campaign for him. It was for that reason he splashed the majority of the cash he had gathered from the sale of midfielder Jim Bett to recruit McCoist, investing his faith in the twenty-year-old striker to score the goals that would propel Rangers back to the top of the Scottish game.

Greig, who had been keeping tabs on McCoist for five months, told the media: ‘I am very pleased to get a player who has been full-time with an English club, and has matured both physically and mentally in the process, since I tried to sign him two years ago.’1 He went on to explain that he felt McCoist would enjoy more success at Ibrox than he had done at Roker Park, as Rangers were ‘a more attack-minded team’. In the end, Greig’s faith in McCoist would be wholly justified, and he believes the purchase of the striker is one of the biggest legacies he left the club.

The signing of McCoist was not welcomed with open arms by the Rangers fans, though. The Ibrox regulars were a little apprehensive about the new acquisition, as only two years earlier he had turned down the chance to sign for Rangers when he had opted to join Sunderland. This anxiety simply heaped more pressure on the shoulders of McCoist, although he was quick to point out that, despite not having enjoyed as much success in the English First Division as he would have liked, Rangers had now recruited a far better player than the one they would have brought in had they signed him from St Johnstone in the summer of 1981. He told the club newspaper:

I’m not coming to Rangers now to opt out of English football, or because I feel I have been a failure there or anything like that – far from it. My two years at Sunderland were very happy ones and I feel they were invaluable to me in terms of experience. I am coming back to Scotland a better player. When I took the step up from Scottish First Division football to playing at the highest level in England, I knew it would be hard. That was why I went. It made me a much better all-round player and I was looking forward to next season with the club, as I felt it would have been my best yet.²

Things started well for the new recruit. He made his debut on 21 July 1983 in a pre-season friendly against Swedish minnows Arlovs and, sporting the number eight jersey, netted a hat-trick as Rangers got their Scandinavian tour off to an emphatic start with a crushing 11-0 victory. His first goal arrived in the thirty-ninth minute when he stabbed a pass from strike-partner Sandy Clark into the net, and he added two more goals in the second half, netting a Davie Cooper cross a minute after the restart before completing his treble after sixty-six minutes when the ball broke to him after a goalmouth scramble.

More goals followed two days later when Solvesborgs were thrashed 12-0, McCoist grabbing four this time around, although he was upstaged by Clark who notched five. A goal in each of the final two tour matches against Norrstrands and Myresjo IF took McCoist’s tally to nine goals in four matches, and although the standard of opposition was poor, the goal-scoring return did wonders for his confidence ahead of the new season. The fact that Clark, a £160,000 buy from West Ham United in March 1983, had also hit nine goals augured well for the new campaign and suggested that Greig had discovered a potent strike-pairing that could chalk up the goals required to shoot Rangers back onto the glory trail.

Rangers completed their pre-season preparations with two matches in Belgium – McCoist failed to score as Rangers lost 2-1 to Beerschot and defeated Berchem Sport 4-0 to finish third in the Metropool Cup – and a 4-2 Ibrox victory over West Bromwich Albion – again the new boy was absent from the scoresheet, but he did create goals for Bobby Russell and Robert Prytz. McCoist then got his hands on his first piece of silverware when Rangers defeated Celtic 1-0 at Hampden on 13 August to lift the Glasgow Cup. Watched by a small crowd by Old Firm standards of just 32,707, Sandy Clark scored Rangers’ goal to hand them the trophy for the forty-first time.

Buoyed by his exploits in Sweden and now fully integrated into the Rangers side, McCoist made a good start when the competitive action got under way seven days after the win over Celtic. Although he did not score on his competitive debut, a 1-1 draw with St Mirren in the opening league match, he did find the net for the first time in Rangers colours a week later in a League Cup tie with Queen of the South at Palmerston Park in Dumfries, notching Rangers’ fourth goal seven minutes from the end to complete an 8-1 aggregate victory over the Doonhamers.

Better was to follow on the first Saturday in September when McCoist lined up against Old Firm rivals Celtic at Parkhead in his first real taste of one of the world’s most famous derby matches. He had encountered the unsavoury, almost tribal, warfare of this head-to-head in the Glasgow Cup final in pre-season, but this was the first ‘major’ confrontation he was taking part in. He later recalled that he had ‘never been more nervous before the start of a game’³, but his nerves were soon suppressed thanks to his record-breaking first touch of the ball.

With the match barely underway and the majority of the 50,662 supporters still trying to find their vantage point on the terraces and in the stands, Roy Aitken clattered into the back of Sandy Clark and referee David Syme awarded the visitors a free-kick. Swedish midfielder Robert Prytz took the kick quickly and sent right-back Davie MacKinnon scampering down the right flank. He reached the goal-line and pulled the ball back invitingly into the penalty area. Lurking there was McCoist and he rapped the ball through the legs of Celtic goalkeeper Pat Bonner with his right foot to score his first-ever goal against Celtic. A mere twenty-seven seconds had elapsed since the kick-off and McCoist’s strike set a new record for the quickest-ever goal in the history of Old Firm conflict. The record stood for almost twenty years before Chris Sutton of Celtic beat it when he scored after only nineteen seconds of the December 2002 clash between these two titans.

A delirious McCoist ran with arms aloft towards his new public who were celebrating wildly at the other end of the ground. If there is one way to ingratiate yourself with the Rangers fans instantly then it is by scoring against Celtic and McCoist had done just that with his first touch of the ball. Their collective joy was to be short lived, though, as Celtic restored parity within eight minutes through Roy Aitken before Frank McGarvey popped up late in the match to net the winning goal.

That defeat at Celtic Park was the first of three straight league losses, which meant that Rangers only had one point on the board after the first four Premier Division matches. Greig’s men finally chalked up their first league win when newly promoted St Johnstone came to Ibrox on 24 September and were beaten 6-3. McCoist, on the day of his twenty-first birthday, was on the scoresheet, netting two of the six goals against his former club.

A further two victories against defending champions Dundee United and Hibernian were reeled off, but the results merely papered over the large cracks that were beginning to appear. Greig was now living on borrowed time and when Rangers followed up a 3-2 reverse against Dundee at Dens Park by going down 2-1 at home to Motherwell on 22 October, it was the end of the line for the manager. Amid furious supporters’ demonstrations calling for the board to sack him, Greig resigned from his post. He had won four trophies in just over five seasons in charge, but the supporters craved success in the championship and Greig paid the ultimate price for failing to deliver the premier trophy.

McCoist, who had scored from the penalty spot in the defeat against Motherwell, later recalled that Greig’s departure saddened many of the first-team squad at Ibrox. He said: ‘I can still vividly remember the scene in the dressing room the day he told us. He’d known a lot of the squad for years and quite a few of the players were in tears on his behalf. I must admit I was a bit upset myself.’⁴

Although Greig’s assistant Tommy McLean took the job on a caretaker basis, the Rangers board had two names in the frame to take over from Greig on a permanent basis. Top of their list was the manager of Aberdeen, Alex Ferguson.

Ferguson had been on Rangers’ books as a player from 1967 until 1969, signing from Dunfermline Athletic for a then Scottish record fee of £65,000. He proceeded to score thirty-five goals in sixty-six appearances in light blue, but was sold to Falkirk in November 1969 for only £20,000. He had fallen out of favour with manager Davie White following the 1969 Scottish Cup final, a match in which Rangers were battered 4-0 by rivals Celtic. Celtic had taken the lead after only two minutes when Billy McNeill rose unchallenged to direct a header beyond Norrie Martin in the Rangers goal, and White placed the blame for conceding the early goal squarely on the shoulders of Ferguson, who was supposed to be picking up Celtic’s skipper at set-pieces. Ferguson never pulled on a Rangers shirt again.

Following the end of his playing career, Ferguson took up the managerial reins at East Stirlingshire before winning promotion to the Premier Division as manager of St Mirren in 1977. He was sacked in 1978, but when Aberdeen manager Billy McNeill was tempted to take charge of Celtic a few months later, Ferguson was recruited to replace him in the Granite City. After finishing fourth and reaching the final of the League Cup in his first season, Ferguson guided the Pittodrie outfit to the championship in 1979/80, their first title win since 1955, and followed this with further success in the Scottish Cup in 1982 and 1983 and then triumph in Europe, as Aberdeen beat Alfredo di Stefano’s Real Madrid to win the 1983 European Cup-Winners’ Cup. With those credentials on his CV, he was a man in demand and when Rangers’ vice-chairman John Paton contacted him to sound him out over the possibility of taking over from Greig, he was, initially at least, tempted by the offer. However, after mulling over the pros and cons of the move, Ferguson decided to stick with Aberdeen and Rangers had to turn their attentions towards their second candidate, Jim McLean of Dundee United, the brother of caretaker boss Tommy.

Like Ferguson, McLean had been hugely successful at United, rearing a quality crop of young players and blending them into a side that won the League Cup in 1979/80, the Tayside club’s first-ever piece of silverware. They retained the trophy the following season and then, in the 1982/83 season, McLean led United to the Premier Division title. It looked as though this time Rangers would get their man, with McLean informing his assistant Walter Smith that he was on his way to Ibrox and that he was taking him with him. However, McLean had an eleventh-hour change of heart and rejected Rangers’ overtures, prompting the Ibrox directors to swallow their pride and invite Jock Wallace back to Ibrox to take charge of team affairs for the second time. Given the success he had brought to the club during his first spell as manager, Wallace’s return to the manager’s office in 1983 was met with widespread approval within the Rangers community.

Although he would later be regarded as having had a significant impact on the career of Ally McCoist, it initially looked as though the arrival of Wallace was going to signal a premature end to McCoist’s stay at Ibrox. He was in the team when Wallace’s second stint in the manager’s chair got off to a shocking start when Rangers were thumped 3-0 by Aberdeen at Pittodrie, their fifth defeat on the bounce, but despite retaining his place when the rot was stopped with a 0-0 draw at home against Dundee United and a 1-0 victory over St Johnstone at Muirton Park, McCoist was struggling to find his true form. Despite making his first appearance for Scotland at Under-21 level against Belgium in October, he failed to score for five league matches and, although he netted his sixth goal of the League Cup tournament in the 3-0 win against Clydebank at Kilbowie in a sectional tie, his lack of firepower in the league soon cost him his place in the team. He was dropped to the reserves at the end of November and replaced in the first team by new £100,000 signing Bobby Williamson.

While the top team recorded comprehensive back-to-back wins over Hearts and Motherwell – both by three goals to nil – McCoist turned out in three second-string fixtures, scoring against Hearts in a 3-0 win at Tynecastle and netting the winner in a 3-2 victory over Aberdeen at Pittodrie. However, just as he seemed to be rediscovering his scoring touch, he suffered further misery when he broke his right wrist playing for the club in an indoor five-a-side tournament in his hometown of East Kilbride. The injury kept him out of action for four games and during his spell on the sidelines rumours surfaced of a swift return to Sunderland. The Wearsiders made an initial enquiry regarding his availability, but no formal bid was lodged, so McCoist would remain at Ibrox for the time being at least.

In McCoist’s absence, Wallace galvanised an ailing Rangers side. The no-score draw at home to Dundee United in late November heralded a dramatic change of fortune, and the two victories over Hearts and Motherwell triggered a golden spell, as Rangers reeled off five straight wins in the title race, the first time they had achieved the feat since January 1978.

McCoist eventually made his return to the first team in January when he came on as a substitute in a challenge match against Feyenoord at Ibrox. The Dutch cracks had one of the finest players of all time, Johan Cruyff, in their ranks and also a talented youngster by the name of Ruud Gullit, but Rangers forced a 3-3 draw before eventually succumbing 7-6 on penalties. Despite not having fully recovered from his broken wrist, McCoist replaced Bobby Williamson at half-time and scored one of the penalties in the shootout.

With the team in such fine form, it was proving difficult for McCoist to force his way back into the starting eleven, and he was used as a substitute for Rangers’ next two matches, a 2-0 victory over St Johnstone in the league and a Scottish Cup third-round triumph over Second Division outfit Dunfermline Athletic. His contribution to the latter match was priceless, though, as he netted the winning goal seven minutes from time to help the Ibrox side scrape into the next round thanks to a 2-1 victory. Rab Stewart had fired Dunfermline into a shock lead, but Colin McAdam equalised after eighty-one minutes before McCoist hit the net to spare the home side’s blushes.

McCoist’s goal, his first in the top team since November, was enough to convince Wallace that he merited being reinstated to the starting eleven, and he repaid his manager’s faith by grabbing a goal in the 2-1 home win over Motherwell and another in the 2-2 draw against Hearts at Tynecastle seven days later. The results helped stretch Rangers’ unbeaten run to thirteen matches.

A decisive factor in Rangers’ resurgence was the players’ improved physical conditioning thanks to the radical change in the way training sessions were now conducted at Ibrox. During his first spell in charge, Wallace had made a name for himself with his gruelling sessions on the sand dunes at Gullane and on the old terracing at Ibrox, often pushing his players beyond their physical limits in order to increase their stamina, which in turn, he believed, would help them outlast opponents in the latter stages of games. This was the kind of training McCoist needed. ‘I became stronger and harder and that physical edge helped my game,’ he said. ‘Under Jock, I developed more than I had done in the previous six years.’⁵

Wallace focused in particular on the upper body and his players would undergo a daily circuit of exercises in the away dressing room at Ibrox that were geared towards building this area of the body. McCoist recalled: ‘I can’t emphasise strongly enough how important this particular spell was to me. It might be a bit melodramatic to say it, but I think Jock Wallace saved my career at that time. All I am sure of is that the Ally McCoist who emerged midway through the 1983/84 season was a more complete player than the one who’d started it.’⁶

McCoist’s resurgence continued in March when he netted Rangers’ fourth goal in a 4-1 win over St Johnstone, but he was unable to prevent the Light Blues’ unbeaten streak coming to an end on St Patrick’s Day 1984 when Dundee won 3-2 at Ibrox in the Scottish Cup quarter-final replay. The run had lasted for twenty matches, but attention was now being focused on securing some silverware, as Wallace’s men were gunning for glory in the Scottish League Cup.

In parallel with the good run in the championship and the Scottish Cup, Wallace’s troops were also enjoying a fruitful campaign in the League Cup. Under John Greig’s leadership, Queen of the South had been beaten in round two, before Rangers recorded six wins out of six to top qualifying section two ahead of St Mirren, Hearts and Clydebank. This granted them passage to the last four, and waiting for Wallace and his players in the semi-finals were defending Premier Division champions Dundee United.

McCoist had shown an early liking for this particular tournament. Back in September, he had turned in a fine performance against Clydebank at Ibrox, with the Rangers News rating his display as ‘the highlight of the night’.⁷ Playing in a more withdrawn role behind strikers Sandy Clark and Davie Mitchell, he had played exceptionally well and topped off a wonderful night by netting his first-ever goals at Ibrox in a Rangers jersey in the twenty-fourth and sixty-eighth minutes. Another brace against St Mirren in a 5-0 win at Ibrox and a strike against Clydebank at Kilbowie took his tally to six goals in just seven League Cup appearances.

The semi-final against United was contested over two legs in February. McCoist started both matches and although he failed to add to his impressive haul of League Cup goals over the course of the two fixtures, a late goal from Australian striker Dave Mitchell earned a 1-1 draw in the first leg at Tannadice, and second-leg strikes from Clark and Redford booked Rangers’ place in the final by virtue of a 3-1 aggregate win. The reward for Rangers was a 25 March meeting with Celtic at Hampden, as their rivals had disposed of Aberdeen in the other semi-final. For McCoist, it was only his second visit to the national stadium as a player and it was also the first major national cup final of his career.

Rangers arrived at Hampden with a depleted squad, though. Midfielders Ian Redford and Robert Prytz were both suspended as a consequence of being ordered off in the Scottish Cup defeat against Dundee, leaving Wallace desperately short of options in that area of the team. He therefore had to reorganise his ranks to compensate for their absence and chose a trip to Belfast five days before the final to try out his proposed Cup final line-up. Rangers took on Linfield in a friendly and, instead of spearheading the attack alongside Sandy Clark, McCoist was deployed on the right-hand side of midfield. The deeper role did not seem to faze him, though, as he notched one of Rangers’ four goals in a comfortable 4-0 win. He also had another strike ruled out for offside and over the course of the ninety minutes showed his manager that he could help plug the gaps in midfield while also advancing forward to trouble the opposition defence. Clearly Wallace was convinced and he asked McCoist to fulfil the role again on the day of the Cup final. Indeed, the Rangers manager made just one change to the team that had won in Northern Ireland – a fit-again Bobby Russell replaced young Derek Ferguson – and the team he put his faith in on a sunny spring afternoon read: Peter McCloy, Jimmy Nicholl, Alistair Dawson, John McClelland, Craig Paterson, David McPherson, Bobby Russell, Ally McCoist, Sandy Clark, John McDonald and Davie Cooper. The substitutes were Colin McAdam and Hugh Burns.

Despite fielding what the Glasgow Herald perceived to be a ‘patchwork side’,⁸ Rangers took command of a keenly fought contest and almost took the lead after just seven minutes when Russell released McCoist on the right. He arrowed a low cross into the danger area, which a well-placed Clark somehow contrived to miss. The ball ran on to John McDonald, who saw his goal-bound shot cleared off the line by Tom McAdam.

It had almost been a dream start for Wallace’s side, but they eventually broke the deadlock on the stroke of half-time. The wonderfully gifted Russell, who was orchestrating all of Rangers’ good midfield play, worked a ‘one-two’ with Davie Cooper on the left, but his route to goal was halted illegally when Murdo McLeod brought him crashing to the turf. Referee Bob Valentine awarded Rangers a penalty-kick, and with resident penalty taker Prytz suspended, McCoist took the responsibility and duly despatched the kick with aplomb, sending Pat Bonner to his right as the ball fizzed to his left.

The goal did come against the run of play, as Celtic were enjoying a good spell at the time, but Rangers looked to have cupped one hand around the trophy when they scored for a second time one minute shy of the hour mark. Sandy Clark got his head on to the end of a mammoth clearance from goalkeeper Peter McCloy and flicked the ball into the path of McCoist, who kept his composure to slot a shot behind Bonner before jumping for joy in front of the Rangers masses at the traditional ‘Rangers End’ of Hampden.

It looked as though Rangers’ name was etched on the trophy, but Celtic, fresh from thumping Motherwell 6-0 in the Scottish Cup and still in with a realistic chance of winning the Treble, mounted a stirring fight back. Brian McClair halved the deficit from a cleverly worked free-kick in the sixty-seventh minute, and the Parkhead side forced the match into extra-time by drawing level as the clock ticked beyond the ninety-minute mark and into injury time. It was a case of hero turning to villain for Rangers, as McCoist upended Murdo McLeod as he shaped to shoot inside the penalty area prompting Mr Valentine to point to the penalty spot once again. Although adamant that there had been no infringement (‘I’ve watched the incident umpteen times on television since then and I know it looks like a foul, but I still maintain to this day that I touched the ball first’⁹), McCoist watched in horror as Mark Reid scored from 12 yards to restore parity at 2-2.

Wallace roused his charges ahead of the extra half-hour and made a tactical switch by moving McCoist from midfield to his more familiar striking role. It paid dividends, as with sixty seconds of the first period of extra-time remaining, the ball was played in towards McCoist and, as he attempted to turn towards goal, he was barged over by Roy Aitken inside the penalty area. Penalty number three was swiftly awarded, and McCoist dusted himself down, grabbed the ball, placed it on the spot and chose to shoot to the same corner as he had in the dying minutes of the first half. However, on this occasion, Bonner guessed correctly and swooped to save the striker’s effort, but he could only parry the ball out and McCoist, following up his initial shot, gladly devoured the rebound to complete his Cup final hat-trick. In doing so he became only the third Rangers player to net a hat-trick against Celtic in a competitive match since the end of the Second World War. (For the record, the others were both scored in league fixtures on New Year’s Day, by Jimmy Duncanson in 1949 and South African Johnny Hubbard in 1955.)

Wallace’s men successfully managed to see out the remaining minutes of the match and when referee Valentine blew the final whistle it brought about scenes of mass celebration in the Rangers ranks. Within the space of just four months, Jock Wallace had roused a ragged Rangers side and delivered the club’s first piece of domestic silverware since their success in the same competition two years previously.

For match-winner and hat-trick hero McCoist, it was also a memorable moment. He was showered with congratulations and gifts as a result of his performance. On top of his first-ever major winners’ medal, he claimed the match ball and a Seiko gold watch for netting the last goal of the final, and he also hoped his achievements would finally bring a halt to the transfer rumours that had been circulating a few months earlier. ‘I’m delighted for myself, delighted for Rangers and the fans,’ he said at the post-match media conference. ‘It’s really a dream come true to score a hat-trick in an Old Firm Cup final. I would also like to thank John Greig for giving me my chance by buying me. There seemed to be some doubts about my future as an Ibrox player not so long ago, but hopefully that’s all behind me now because this is the club I want to play for.’¹⁰

Celtic gained a modicum of revenge for the League Cup reverse eight days later when they ended Rangers’ four-month unbeaten run in the title race, winning 3-0 at Parkhead. This result, coupled with the poor start to the campaign, meant that McCoist did not add a League Championship medal to his collection. Despite defeating Celtic 1-0 at Ibrox and drawing at Pittodrie in the run-in, Rangers finished fourth in the title race for the second successive year, this time languishing fifteen points adrift of champions Aberdeen.

Aside from the lack of success in the Premier Division, McCoist was justifiably happy with his first campaign in light blue. Despite the midseason blip when he had been out of sorts, dropped to the reserves and seemingly on his way out of Ibrox, he finished the season with one major medal and a total of twenty goals in forty-seven league and cup appearances. This goal haul was good enough to see McCoist finish as the club’s top goalscorer, an achievement that, coupled with the Cup final hat-trick against Celtic, had the striker thinking that he had finally won the seal of approval from the notoriously hard-to-please Rangers fans and Jock Wallace. Indeed, Wallace stated at the end of the season that his first impression of the young striker was incorrect. ‘I have to admit the laddie proved me wrong last season,’ confessed the Rangers manager:¹¹

I wasn’t sure of him. I didn’t know if his attitude was right and there was a spell when I might have thought of selling him. But he was dropped and he didn’t complain. He just went out on the training ground and worked as hard as he knew how. He did the same in the reserves, worked and played, until he forced his way back into the first team. And before he scored that hat-trick in the final against Celtic he had convinced me that he was a Rangers man. He grew up a lot last season and became an important player for us, and so he will remain as long as his attitude stays the same.

Troubled times lay ahead, though, and events that were to unfold over the next six months would illustrate that the young striker still had a lot to learn and that he had a long way to go to convince not only those supporters but also his manager that he had what it took to be a goal-scoring success at Ibrox.