Bonnyloyal
Well-Known Member
Paul Murray spent Sunday afternoon at home on the Algarve enjoying a glass of chilled champagne.
In the ultimate of ironies, the date just happened to be March 7.
It was six years to the very day that he tiptoed through muddy puddles and driving rain in a car park in Cowdenbeath, wondering if he’d just taken on a task so huge it might never be properly completed.
So as he counted down the clock at Tannadice towards a first Rangers top flight title in a decade, it marked a profound and deeply poignant moment in Murray’s own personal struggle to see his club returned to the very top of the Scottish game.
As he reflected on a triumph he feared might never arrive Murray said: “When the whistle went at the end it’s hard to describe how I actually felt.
“It was a feeling of relief, joy and pride.
“Pride is a big emotion because there is pride back in the club again and respect, after all the trials and tribulations of the last 10 years.
“It was a feeling of pride that we’re finally back to where we had been.”
In an instant, his mind races back to Central Park on March 7, 2015.
It’s less than 24 hours after Murray, Dave King and John Gilligan completed the boardroom coup which, on reflection, changed the course of history.
A key milestone in what became known as The Journey, followed by a real life reminder of just how far they still had to travel.
Murray said: “It’s quite fitting that it actually ended six years to the day of that Cowdenbeath game.
“There’s a bit of symmetry because that day was one of my lowest ebbs.
“Yes, it was a great feeling for Dave, myself and John to get the club back but, the following day, we arrive at Cowdenbeath and the enormity of the challenge ahead really hit home. We had gone from the absolute euphoria of the general meeting on the Friday, with all the adrenaline and the relief and joy of winning.
“You go to bed, get up on Saturday and drive to Central Park.
“It’s March 7, absolutely freezing and we’re driving up this hill to get to the ground, passing Rangers fans in various pubs.
“You get to the car park, you walk through puddles and mud to get to the front door. You’re still excited because the adrenaline is still flowing from the previous day.
“But then you sit down and take a look around.
“The wind is blowing crisp packets and the sweetie wrappers around on the pitch. The team is devoid of confidence on the back of a really poor run and then the game is just awful.
“We end up with a 0-0 draw against a team who’d been beaten 10-0 by Hearts the previous weekend.
“Afterwards we went into the boardroom.
“Donald Findlay was there taking great delight in pulling our legs because of his Rangers connections.
“But at about quarter past five he said, ‘Guys, I’m sorry to interrupt but I have to ask you to leave because the stock cars will be arriving in five minutes. If you don’t go now you won’t get out!’.
“We then literally run from the main stand, through the mud, back to the car park.
“As we get to the gates, there are these massive stock cars with huge tyres coming in the other way.
“I remember thinking, ‘This is Rangers in 2015. We were in the Champions League four or five years ago! This is going to be some challenge to turn it
all around’.
“It was a scary thought. We were quite far behind Hearts in the Championship and the club was broken in every single department.
“Now we were the guys holding the keys to the front door and it came with a real sense of responsibility. It was going to take a rebuild job, brick by brick.”
Exhausted after three seasons trying and failing to knock Celtic off their perch – not to mention seven previous years spent battling against all manner of rogues in the Blue Room – he eventually stepped down from the board just three days before Steven Gerrard’s appointment as manager in May 2018.
He recalled: “I was just burned out with everything that had happened. We had just come to the end of another season of Celtic being all conquering and I’d had enough.
“When you look at where we were back then, we were hoping rather than expecting so the job Steven has done has been incredible. I actually left the club on the Tuesday and Steven was appointed on the Friday.
“But I’ve kept in touch with people at the club and as a fan I’ve watched the progress that’s been made and the job Steven has done has been remarkable.
“There were signs he was building something.
“Having said that, it was about a year ago we lost at home to Hamilton.
“If you had said at that point that we’d win the league by 20 points 12 months later I don’t think many people would have taken that bet.”
So a glass of bubbles in the Portuguese sunshine was Murray’s way of marking the occasion. He said: “It’s been 10 years in the making and there were some pretty tough times.
“I was just one of a few key people who fought the battle because it was one we had to fight.
“If you look back to 2015 when we managed to get change in the boardroom it was one of the happiest days of my life. We were all proud of what we had achieved as it just had to be done.
“Since I’ve left the club the board has done an incredible job, backing Steven and his staff to the hilt. That’s been a big part of the success and they deserve enormous credit. We are seeing the fruits of the hard work.
In the ultimate of ironies, the date just happened to be March 7.
It was six years to the very day that he tiptoed through muddy puddles and driving rain in a car park in Cowdenbeath, wondering if he’d just taken on a task so huge it might never be properly completed.
So as he counted down the clock at Tannadice towards a first Rangers top flight title in a decade, it marked a profound and deeply poignant moment in Murray’s own personal struggle to see his club returned to the very top of the Scottish game.
As he reflected on a triumph he feared might never arrive Murray said: “When the whistle went at the end it’s hard to describe how I actually felt.
“It was a feeling of relief, joy and pride.
“Pride is a big emotion because there is pride back in the club again and respect, after all the trials and tribulations of the last 10 years.
“It was a feeling of pride that we’re finally back to where we had been.”
In an instant, his mind races back to Central Park on March 7, 2015.
It’s less than 24 hours after Murray, Dave King and John Gilligan completed the boardroom coup which, on reflection, changed the course of history.
A key milestone in what became known as The Journey, followed by a real life reminder of just how far they still had to travel.
Murray said: “It’s quite fitting that it actually ended six years to the day of that Cowdenbeath game.
“There’s a bit of symmetry because that day was one of my lowest ebbs.
“Yes, it was a great feeling for Dave, myself and John to get the club back but, the following day, we arrive at Cowdenbeath and the enormity of the challenge ahead really hit home. We had gone from the absolute euphoria of the general meeting on the Friday, with all the adrenaline and the relief and joy of winning.
“You go to bed, get up on Saturday and drive to Central Park.
“It’s March 7, absolutely freezing and we’re driving up this hill to get to the ground, passing Rangers fans in various pubs.
“You get to the car park, you walk through puddles and mud to get to the front door. You’re still excited because the adrenaline is still flowing from the previous day.
“But then you sit down and take a look around.
“The wind is blowing crisp packets and the sweetie wrappers around on the pitch. The team is devoid of confidence on the back of a really poor run and then the game is just awful.
“We end up with a 0-0 draw against a team who’d been beaten 10-0 by Hearts the previous weekend.
“Afterwards we went into the boardroom.
“Donald Findlay was there taking great delight in pulling our legs because of his Rangers connections.
“But at about quarter past five he said, ‘Guys, I’m sorry to interrupt but I have to ask you to leave because the stock cars will be arriving in five minutes. If you don’t go now you won’t get out!’.
“We then literally run from the main stand, through the mud, back to the car park.
“As we get to the gates, there are these massive stock cars with huge tyres coming in the other way.
“I remember thinking, ‘This is Rangers in 2015. We were in the Champions League four or five years ago! This is going to be some challenge to turn it
all around’.
“It was a scary thought. We were quite far behind Hearts in the Championship and the club was broken in every single department.
“Now we were the guys holding the keys to the front door and it came with a real sense of responsibility. It was going to take a rebuild job, brick by brick.”
There’s another twist of fate in Murray’s story.Exhausted after three seasons trying and failing to knock Celtic off their perch – not to mention seven previous years spent battling against all manner of rogues in the Blue Room – he eventually stepped down from the board just three days before Steven Gerrard’s appointment as manager in May 2018.
He recalled: “I was just burned out with everything that had happened. We had just come to the end of another season of Celtic being all conquering and I’d had enough.
“When you look at where we were back then, we were hoping rather than expecting so the job Steven has done has been incredible. I actually left the club on the Tuesday and Steven was appointed on the Friday.
“But I’ve kept in touch with people at the club and as a fan I’ve watched the progress that’s been made and the job Steven has done has been remarkable.
“There were signs he was building something.
“Having said that, it was about a year ago we lost at home to Hamilton.
“If you had said at that point that we’d win the league by 20 points 12 months later I don’t think many people would have taken that bet.”
So a glass of bubbles in the Portuguese sunshine was Murray’s way of marking the occasion. He said: “It’s been 10 years in the making and there were some pretty tough times.
“I was just one of a few key people who fought the battle because it was one we had to fight.
“If you look back to 2015 when we managed to get change in the boardroom it was one of the happiest days of my life. We were all proud of what we had achieved as it just had to be done.
“Since I’ve left the club the board has done an incredible job, backing Steven and his staff to the hilt. That’s been a big part of the success and they deserve enormous credit. We are seeing the fruits of the hard work.
