Rangers broke Jim McLean’s heart in forgotten 1981 ‘family final’

My first cup final, I was 10. I wasn’t allowed to go to the replay as it was a school night!!
I think the replay was on the telly, but it may have been highlights? It was a wee while ago, so my memory isn’t clear.
 
TQ3 said:
My first cup final, I was 10. I wasn’t allowed to go to the replay as it was a school night!!
I think the replay was on the telly, but it may have been highlights? It was a wee while ago, so my memory isn’t clear.
Click to expand...
Highlights.

Dad taped it after the first game, and the tape ran out just after the 4th goal. :mad:
 
mdingwall said:
Rangers broke Jim McLean’s heart in forgotten 1981 ‘family final’
Article includes some never before published pictures.

www.thecourier.co.uk

Rangers broke Dundee United legend Jim McLean's heart in forgotten 'family final'

Hamish McAlpine saved a last minute penalty in the 1981 Scottish Cup Final but still got an ear-bashing from Dundee United manager Jim McLean. The match
www.thecourier.co.uk www.thecourier.co.uk
Click to expand...
Thanks Boss


I never knew that Was the 2nd cup final that both McLeans were on opposite sides

Was born in 79 ,it is a forgotten fact
 
mdingwall said:
Rangers broke Jim McLean’s heart in forgotten 1981 ‘family final’
Article includes some never before published pictures.

www.thecourier.co.uk

Rangers broke Dundee United legend Jim McLean's heart in forgotten 'family final'

Hamish McAlpine saved a last minute penalty in the 1981 Scottish Cup Final but still got an ear-bashing from Dundee United manager Jim McLean. The match
www.thecourier.co.uk www.thecourier.co.uk
Click to expand...
I was at both games. Great memories. Sad to think of the guys that played that day no longer around.
 
SM™ said:
Mind when they started doing co-commentators for live games?

Think it was either the 86/87 or 87/88 League Cup Final. One we beat the tims 2-1 and the other the 3-3 game with Abergreen. Both very exciting from my point of view.

McLean was beside Archie for one of them, and EVERYTHING was criticised from start to finish.

Davie Cooper with a swivel of the hips and two defenders on their arses - "Aw, naw, nae good, goin' tae groon' too easy."

Durrant breaks into the box away from his marker to score - "Aw, whit's the man daein that's meant tae follow him? Pure amateur!"

At the end of it you'd have thought it was the worst game you'd seen in your entire puff!
Click to expand...
The 86/87 final.

Archie - Derek Ferguson, voted MOTM. Do you agree with that Jim?

Jum - Aww, it wis definitely a Derek. McGlum tying to make a case for the yahoo's Derek Whyte who along with his team mates kicked everything in blue that moved that day.

On a slightly different tangent. Any Rangers fan from that era will tell you that Dun Utd were a good team. They could beat the yahoos, certainly more than we could at the time, and had their fair share of results against Aberdeen too.

Yet more often than not, we could turn it on against them, even though we were pretty bad at the time. The 81 Final and replay were a microcosm of that.

Another game against them at Ibrox and they battered us with everything plus the kitchen sink. It might have been Davie Dodds who scored their goal early doors and we went up the park one time late on in the second half and we snatched a draw.

Tell you what though Jim.

We might have broke your heart in 1981.

You never broke ours in 1983.

You should never have been considered for the job as manager of Rangers Football Club in the first place.
 
United were the only one out of them, the yahoos & the sheep that we could perform well against regularly during the dim and distant days of Greig and Wallace.

Hearts as well, once Alex McDonald shaped them into a decent outfit, and more often than not Dundee would beat us - or come close. A certain carrot-header midfielder by the name of Broon used to do the job regularly.

Thank Christ he failed that Hearts medical. Could've done us out of my favourite Ranger of them all.
 
Nothing to do with the game, but I met Jim McLean once in a mall in Florida. Think I had the red and white quartered top on from about 95-96, it obviously caught his eye and I said hello to him. He stopped and we talked for a minute or so. Less dour than his reputation, but it was only a minute of his holiday, so I probably caught him at the right time.
 
pelem said:
Yeah, Ian Redford missed which in a way was a good thing in a forgettable final compared to the replay where we played them off the park and john MacDonald and Davie Cooper featured prominently.
Click to expand...

My favoruite ever penalty miss as my Dad said if he misses this we'll go the replay and it was brilliant and on a school night as well :)
 
I remember being a young boy and utterly gutted a the draw in the first tie. It was probably my first taste of 'heartbreak' as a Gers fan. The replay obviously made up for it though but I unfortunately don't remember it as vividly.
 
Was only 9 and watched it on the telly and even I knew it would have been better if Cooper and "my brothers pal" John MacDonald had played.
Lo and behold they were selected for the replay, which I was allowed to stay up for, and ran United ragged.
 
Remember listening to the replay on the radio and seeing the highlights (just the goals was all we got back then) that night. Hoped that was the start of us getting back to challenging in the league but it was a false dawn unfortunately. I also remember the penalty miss in the first game. Looking back I wonder why Coop wasn’t on penalty duties. That would have been game over.
 
Delboy1962 said:
I was gutted when Redford missed the penalty,I was there with my brother in law and went with him to the replay too.
The first game we were terrible but made up for it the replay as were excellent.
Davie Cooper was unplayable that night and looked as if he was making a point to John Greig....it worked!!.
From despair on the Saturday and elated on the Tuesday.
I was 19 then,jeez doesn't time fly?!.
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I was at both games, but don't recall the Redford penalty miss. Then again, a few years earlier, I was at numerous replay games at Hampden versus Hibs in 1979, but don't remember much of them either. Alcohol and youth is not a good mix. lol
 
I was at both games. Not sure if it was the first game or the subsequent League Cup Final when Redford scored with the cross/lob, but Milne I (think) hit a shot from about 35 yards that had Stewart beat all ends up and came back off the crossbar. Remember saying to my mate, we would win it after that as it wasn't going to be their day
 
1BrianLaudrup said:
Nothing to do with the game, but I met Jim McLean once in a mall in Florida. Think I had the red and white quartered top on from about 95-96, it obviously caught his eye and I said hello to him. He stopped and we talked for a minute or so. Less dour than his reputation, but it was only a minute of his holiday, so I probably caught him at the right time.
Click to expand...
Jim was a different man away from his professional football manager persona. He was a member of my extended family and remember going through to Larkhall in the late sixties and early seventies where both Jim and Willie used to be present. I never met Tommy unfortunately. He was a decent guy that had the protestant work ethic all his days. A joiner to trade he used to do maintenance work at Tannadice himself instead of calling in contractors.
 
Drag of a first game.
The Tuesday night replay is one of my best memories supporting Rangers.
Rangers end was rocking on a warm summer night, and Davie Cooper was magic.
 
unnamed-2.jpg


A very young Pentasa with The Scottish Cup the Saturday after the reply in 1981 at the Wee Rangers Shop :)

Still got the pennant John MacDonald was signing in the picture above
 
spotlight said:
Drag of a first game.
The Tuesday night replay is one of my best memories supporting Rangers.
Rangers end was rocking on a warm summer night, and Davie Cooper was magic.
Click to expand...
As was Bobby Russell. The two of them had a brilliant understanding with one another and it was shown to great extent that night. Funnily enough, they repeated it many years later when both playing with Motherwell
 
This was my 1st Cup Final just shy of my 14th birthday. I remember being in section J of a pre tarted up Hampden so my recollection is that by the time the dust had cleared from the celebrations of winning the penalty , we’d missed it !
I wasn’t allowed to the replay because of exams the next day but a brilliant memory for me all the same. Thanks !
 
EwanH1 said:
This was my 1st Cup Final just shy of my 14th birthday. I remember being in section J of a pre tarted up Hampden so my recollection is that by the time the dust had cleared from the celebrations of winning the penalty , we’d missed it !
I wasn’t allowed to the replay because of exams the next day but a brilliant memory for me all the same. Thanks !
Click to expand...
The dust at Hampden was incredible. You loved it and hated it in equal measure. Blowing black snot out your nose for a few hours is nobodies idea of pleasure. To be in that position, Rangers scored and hopefully won the cup - which we all craved!
Remember for years early 70s to mid 80s, there was a message on the ticket that you were getting charged an extra 50p to pay for the redevelopment of the national stadium
 
stonewall Jackson said:
Jim was a different man away from his professional football manager persona. He was a member of my extended family and remember going through to Larkhall in the late sixties and early seventies where both Jim and Willie used to be present. I never met Tommy unfortunately. He was a decent guy that had the protestant work ethic all his days. A joiner to trade he used to do maintenance work at Tannadice himself instead of calling in contractors.
Click to expand...
Brilliant stuff. Would never see a manager do that nowadays.
 
pelem said:
Yeah, Ian Redford missed which in a way was a good thing in a forgettable final compared to the replay where we played them off the park and john MacDonald and Davie Cooper featured prominently.
Click to expand...
Wrong, for the simple reason I had him in the sweep on our bus to score the first goal. 50 sheets snatched out of my hand. Not that I’m still sore about it
 
mdingwall said:
Rangers broke Jim McLean’s heart in forgotten 1981 ‘family final’
Article includes some never before published pictures.

www.thecourier.co.uk

Rangers broke Dundee United legend Jim McLean's heart in forgotten 'family final'

Hamish McAlpine saved a last minute penalty in the 1981 Scottish Cup Final but still got an ear-bashing from Dundee United manager Jim McLean. The match
www.thecourier.co.uk www.thecourier.co.uk
Click to expand...
The Courier articles you post are excellent and in depth. I think the DJ story was a cracker as well. Amazing the contrast between the balanced football focussed reporting then and the agenda driven mince produced by so called sports journalists now.
 
pelem said:
Yeah, Ian Redford missed which in a way was a good thing in a forgettable final compared to the replay where we played them off the park and john MacDonald and Davie Cooper featured prominently.
Click to expand...
And Bobby Russell who was superb .
 
That was my first cup final. Main stand on the Saturday, thought we had won it when we got penalty. Rangers end on the Wednesday night. Good memories. Won in in style on the Wednesday.
 
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