1978/79 season

TN8

TN8

Well-Known Member
A few years before I was born, but the European results thread had me looking it up earlier.

Won a Treble the season before, but domestically got off to a fucking horrific start - took 7 games to get our first win, and only won 4 of the first 15 league games.

In the middle of all that we were knocking Juventus and PSV out of the European Cup with 2 of the finest results we've ever had.

So, for older Bears - wtf was going on? Home attendances were under 30k but guessing it was the redevelopment of the stadium?
 
We missed John Greig on the pitch as well as the team growing old, ultimately we just misfired the whole season and things went downhill very quickly.
 
It was Greig’s 1st season as manager.

There was a stand off pre-season as DJ said he only wanted to play at centre-half after scoring 40 goals the previous year.

Billy Urquhart and Alec Forsyth were the only signings.

Greig showed some commendable tactical knowledge in the European games but carried that in into domestic matches such that we’d line up with 5 at the back at St Mirren.

For all that, the league was ours until that night
 
Greig almost won the treble that season as well as a great run in the European Cup. The mentally challenged debacle at Parkhead still rankles with me after all these years as we only needed a draw to win the league and bottled it. This was incredible as we had a team of vastly experienced players and to do it against 10 men was inexcusable. I actually believe this was a setback Greig never fully recovered from.

Things started to go wrong for Greig when he was forced to replace the ageing team he had played alongside for many years. Bad buys in the transfer market as well as poor man management of players such as Davie Cooper and Gordon Smith tilted things against him. Also whilst he didnt have the best transfer budget, due to the reluctance of the board to diversify funds from other projects, he didnt do himself any favours with signings such as Billy Urquart, Gregor Steven's, Sandy Clark and Bobby Williamson.

Folk on here slate Greig as being one of Rangers worst managers in history but forget about the 78-79 season when he was 10 minutes away from going down as a legend who won the treble in his first season.
 
TN8 said:
A few years before I was born, but the European results thread had me looking it up earlier.

Won a Treble the season before, but domestically got off to a fucking horrific start - took 7 games to get our first win, and only won 4 of the first 15 league games.

In the middle of all that we were knocking Juventus and PSV out of the European Cup with 2 of the finest results we've ever had.

So, for older Bears - wtf was going on? Home attendances were under 30k but guessing it was the redevelopment of the stadium?
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Was stance time and Ibrox was often a challenging place for fans and likely players.
Yes I know..hard to believe
 
Monday night that game at parkhead. We still had 2 games to play after that,but they ended up meaningless. Winning the league there all them years later made up for that night.
 
Still remember that night at the piggery, we thought we had clinched the title but our players just couldn’t see the game out. Carnage afterwards, we got a train from Bridgeton Central for Queen Street but it was totally wrecked by the time it reached High Street. Thrown off into the midst of celebrating mentally challengeds everywhere.
Although we won the two cups, The Scottish Cup Final was a turgid affair, two 0-0 draws against a poor Hibs team, we finally scraped the second replay 3-2 thanks to an own goal. I think only about 30,000 bothered to turn up for that one.
 
The 4 2 game at the piggery is still my most painful experience at a football match, we only required a draw to win a treble. I'm sure we were leading at half time as well, it was horrendous.
 
Willger said:
The 4 2 game at the piggery is still my most painful experience at a football match, we only required a draw to win a treble. I'm sure we were leading at half time as well, it was horrendous.
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mentally challengeds weren't in the game till Doyle got sent off early in second half. Seemed to act as a catalyst to them and they completely overran us despite Bobby Russell equalizing. A shamefull capitulation by us and in my opinion something Greig never recovered from.
 
Still remember excitedly running downstairs the morning after the game to look for the score in the Glasgow Herald and not believing that we'd lost. I was 9.
 
We somehow managed to concede four times in the last 25 f.ucking minutes.
A roller coaster season where I thought we just might go all the way in Europe.
Too many lows though.

I remember standing in the Broomloan end surrounded by kerry-oots when Drew Jarvie scored a last minute equaliser at the Rangers end.
 
We were clearly the best equiped team in Scotland but Greig mis-handled the team for many games. Draws all over the place .. Scottish Cup was draw after draw. We lost to Motherwell and Hearts in the League when they were both absolutely crap.
By the end of tbe season we were fading fast...and that match at Parkhead was in the midst of the drab Cup Final v Hibs.
 
Greig was tactically aware in Europe but the problem was he went to places like Rugby Park, Cappielow and Love Street and treated them like away games in Europe. That 4-2 game still haunts me 40 years later.
 
ao2 said:
Greig was tactically aware in Europe but the problem was he went to places like Rugby Park, Cappielow and Love Street and treated them like away games in Europe. That 4-2 game still haunts me 40 years later.
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We took 7 out of 8 points away to Morton and St Mirren.
Kilmarnock were not in the Premier League that season!

but i do get your point
 
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Was this around the time of the football blackout on radio as I seem to remember that Radio Clyde would only give you goal flashes of both the game at the paedodome and the cup final 2nd replay v Hibs ???
 
Purplestar said:
Was this around the time of the football blackout on radio as I seem to remember that Radio Clyde would only give you goal flashes of both the game at the paedodome and the cup final 2nd replay v Hibs ???
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Your right mate. Thankfully that game was never broadcast. Was a conspiracy you know.
 
MO_TxTruBlu said:
We took 7 out of 8 points away to Morton and St Mirren.
Kilmarnock were not in the Premier League that season!

but i do get your point
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Sorry,I meant in general in his time at the club, not just 78/79. We seemed to draw so many games and lost too many points to teams near the bottom of the league. Rangers teams should fear no one, home or away.
 
By fu.ck op, you take me back.

Thinking back to what we got up to gives me the shivers.

Juventus at Ibrox was one of the greatest nights of my life.
 
TN8 said:
A few years before I was born, but the European results thread had me looking it up earlier.

Won a Treble the season before, but domestically got off to a fucking horrific start - took 7 games to get our first win, and only won 4 of the first 15 league games.

In the middle of all that we were knocking Juventus and PSV out of the European Cup with 2 of the finest results we've ever had.

So, for older Bears - wtf was going on? Home attendances were under 30k but guessing it was the redevelopment of the stadium?
Click to expand...
The matches with Juventus, PSV were my first Euro experiences. Half the Italian international team played for Juve and a few from the Dutch international side for PSV - Van Der Kerkoff twins. Still got the programmes.
 
A Monday night game,couldn't believe we lost it from the position we were in,against 10 men.
Too many of the team never turned up when it mattered.
JG just never got the teams or the tactics right against the "lesser" teams,should have been more positive and we would have won the treble.
In Europe we had some fantastic results against really great teams that season as well.
Still f*cking eats away at me whenever that game gets brought up again.
 
It was very reminiscent of the year we got to UEFA Cup Final - the fixture backlog was killing us. We were playing 4 games in about 8 days at the end of a hard season. The fact that we ran out of steam in the last 25 mins that night was symptomatic of this.
Ironically, talked about this season on the bus the other night when on way back from the Porto game. Was asking a young boy what age he was and said when I was his age, I was watching us beating Juventus at Ibrox. Wee fires going in the Broomloan End the night we played Cologne to keep warm - it was baltic. (Burning programmes, other rubbish etc.)
 
The Treasurer said:
It was very reminiscent of the year we got to UEFA Cup Final - the fixture backlog was killing us. We were playing 4 games in about 8 days at the end of a hard season. The fact that we ran out of steam in the last 25 mins that night was symptomatic of this.
Ironically, talked about this season on the bus the other night when on way back from the Porto game. Was asking a young boy what age he was and said when I was his age, I was watching us beating Juventus at Ibrox. Wee fires going in the Broomloan End the night we played Cologne to keep warm - it was baltic. (Burning programmes, other rubbish etc.)
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those young lads are going to experience something else when 55 hits though that won't hit you or I in quite the same way
 
thetoptier said:
those young lads are going to experience something else when 55 hits though that won't hit you or I in quite the same way
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Couldn't agree more. Please let it be this year!
PS - I suspect I may behave more like a 15year old that day than my current age!!!!
 
Greig the manager didn’t have Greig the player. Despite the two cups and beating Juve and PSV, it was the start of some grim years only stopped when Souness came.
 
A combination of many things ultimately cost us another treble.

Greig caving in to DJ and letting him play centre half, something I have never understood from either of them.
Losing the greatest captain I have ever seen and not replacing his on field influence.
Greig often playing an extra midfielder like Kenny Watson instead of Davie Cooper as he didn't think Cooper worked hard enough.
Cup replays, postponements and a European run meaning a massive fixture pile up.
No Copland end at Ibrox and playing home games v Celtic at Hampden.
A team starting to get old.

And that horrific surrender at Parkhead which remains to this day my lowest moment watching Rangers.
 
Big Jock Wallace took over from Ham n egg and had the worst season I can ever remember 35 points from 36 games.

Then Graeme Souness arrived.
 
Treble was there for the taking, from memory the scum lost 9 games in the league that season same as us, Dundee Utd and Aberdeen were not far behind.
 
Who the hell wants to play centre half when you're the best striker in the country and your goals have taken your team to a treble the season before?

I honestly can't get my head round that, every footballer wants to be the goalscorer.
 
academical said:
Didn’t Rangers nearly do back-to-back trebles until (in a slogan that lasted for years) ten men won 4-2?
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Going through my programme collection this week and I had the programme from that very game in my hand. Still can’t believe we threw away that game with five minutes to go.
 
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I've no wish to be negative - especially against JG - but if I'm critical of MW for not having a viable plan B - then it's only fair to apply the same view to JG's reighn

The scum game alone had multiple milestones for him to react & deal with - but instead he stubbornly refused to change anything - or at least not substantially change things -

We didn't hand it to them on a plate exactly - but then again we didn't help ourselves either-
Frustrating to say the least - because we were capable of much much more than we produced at that game imo
 
ao2 said:
Greig was tactically aware in Europe but the problem was he went to places like Rugby Park, Cappielow and Love Street and treated them like away games in Europe. That 4-2 game still haunts me 40 years later.
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I think this is a myth that has grown regards the tactics in Europe that season.

Two wonderful, wonderful, colossul results, of that no question but tactically the tactics were no more.

Two years later we were getting horsed at Chesterfield, so there's the reality of 'the tactics'.
 
wee bud's pit boots said:
I think this is a myth that has grown regards the tactics in Europe that season.

Two wonderful, wonderful, colossul results, of that no question but tactically the tactics were no more.

Two years later we were getting horsed at Chesterfield, so there's the reality of 'the tactics'.
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I think the team had deteriorated in quality by the time we played Chesterfield mate. But he got it right against Juventus and PSV and injuries are what cost us against Cologne. Even the following season we put out a good Fortuna Dusseldorf side (they'd been runners-up in the CWC just a few months earlier) and the away performance against Valencia was excellent. Kempes slaughtered us at Ibrox in the return but he was a special player. It all really started go really wrong around then for me.
 
Went to my first final that season. League cup triumph over the sheep, an and THREE Scottish cup finals!!! May 31st away to the spoonburners to end the season! We didn't win a league game until 30th September! Four draws and 2 defeats at the start. Memories that endeared my love, passion, and commitment to RangersFootball Club
 
ao2 said:
I think the team had deteriorated in quality by the time we played Chesterfield mate. But he got it right against Juventus and PSV and injuries are what cost us against Cologne. Even the following season we put out a good Fortuna Dusseldorf side (they'd been runners-up in the CWC just a few months earlier) and the away performance against Valencia was excellent. Kempes slaughtered us at Ibrox in the return but he was a special player. It all really started go really wrong around then for me.
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I'll say again. the result overall in aggregate v Juventus is as good as it gets for a Scottish club. Or maybe as good against Bayern six years previous. - They stand alone.

PSV? - Was a game that went our way. Unfortunately three days later the same lot fcuked up at Firhill.

Overall, we were a shambles that season.

As someone said elsewhere, Greig the manager, couldn't replace Greig the player.
 
wee bud's pit boots said:
I'll say again. the result overall in aggregate v Juventus is as good as it gets for a Scottish club. Or maybe as good against Bayern six years previous. - They stand alone.

PSV? - Was a game that went our way. Unfortunately three days later the same lot fcuked up at Firhill.

Overall, we were a shambles that season.

As someone said elsewhere, Greig the manager, couldn't replace Greig the player.
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I'm not defending him as a manager. It was a shambles and he was too driven by tactics domestically, setting up games against St Mirren or Motherwell as if it was Barcelona or Real Madrid. But in his first two seasons he seemed to be able to set us up going into games in Europe, especially away. The results he got there back that up. They weren't undeserved flukes. But his domestic record was shit. Losing to Partick three days after PSV says it all.
 
TN8 said:
Yeah but more wondering about the awful start. Was it just the change of manager?
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The best striker in the country wanting to play centre half didn't help. By this point DJ was not treating his body right and although fairly young he was just about done.
 
Ruben Sosa said:
Who the hell wants to play centre half when you're the best striker in the country and your goals have taken your team to a treble the season before?

I honestly can't get my head round that, every footballer wants to be the goalscorer.
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Derek was living in Renfrew and in the pub most nights. Any pace he had was gone. He thought he could get away with it playing at the back.
 
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