Rangers- Newcastle 50 years ago this week

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Bears stopped the away leg game for around 17 minutes. Geordie mate of mine still tells me he'd never seen anything like it. Was crapping himself he said :D
 
My late father told me it was the most frightening time he had experieced at a match. He said that the crushing outside the turnstiles at the Rangers end was really bad and there were loads of fans on the ground. At the end of the match, he said that there were about fifty shoes lined up along a wall as a result of fans losing their shoes in the crush before kick off.
 
I’m far too young :D but a Newcastle fan I know says that Rangers took over the town until all the Newcastle fans finished work and reclaimed it.

I’ll see him tomorrow, is that true?
 
My grandpa and my dad were there but never saw anything wrong. The away support was a bit shocking in its size but I don't think it was anywhere like today In England at the time I think a home game meant home fans, and segragation wasn't so much of a thing
 
I believe only some stands or the posh seats were ticketed at that time. otherwise it was payment at the gate.
 
and thats yet another one of the many reasons that Sunderland are the only team Rangers should follow in the NE !!!
 
My late father told me it was the most frightening time he had experieced at a match. He said that the crushing outside the turnstiles at the Rangers end was really bad and there were loads of fans on the ground. At the end of the match, he said that there were about fifty shoes lined up along a wall as a result of fans losing their shoes in the crush before kick off.
No shit Sherlock and excuse the pun. My late father told me the exact same thing. Said he was bricking it.
 
and thats yet another one of the many reasons that Sunderland are the only team Rangers should follow in the NE !!!
Was down for a Gateshead game and seen a Rangers/Gateshead/NI incorporated flag,it was right down at bottom of stand was going to pop down at half time for a chat with guy who brought flag,PS Gateshead were playing Barrow
 
Older guy I know went down and said the windows on their buses were done in by kids from the first school they passed going into Newcastle. :))
 
Tickets were at a premium and the Mermaid bus took a scaling ladder down with it.
Dunno if you are kidding but away fans didn't need "tickets" because tickets were just regular "seats". To be honest I spent almostr 20 years home and away never missing a game following Rangers and never having a "ticket" between the late 60's and late 80's.
 
Met an old Geordie in the Northern Ireland club in Benidorm the day before Villarreal game. Told me since that day he’s followed the bears. Had never seen a support like it and fell in love with Rangers from that day on
 
Tickets were at a premium and the Mermaid bus took a scaling ladder down with it.
A song is born...

The Mermaid was mentioned in a song back in the day, remember singing it often on our bus. Me and my wee pal decided to go and find this particular pub and had a nice welcome from everyone inside.

A song is born...(had to google it as I'd forgotten the words)

Here they are :))

If yer feelin tired and weary and yer heart just skips a beat.
You'll get your fcukin head kicked if you walk down Jamesy's Street.

Take a walk into the Mermaid and you'll hear the famous noise, get out ya f****n bhastards we're the Brigton Derry Boys.

We're the boys from the toll, we are Loyal and we're true, and when we meet the 19th Century Terrorists we are ready for a do.

To the cry of no surrender, surrender or you'll die,
Good luck tae the Glasgow Rangers and the Brigton Derry Boys.

I do remember this bit at the end though...

Too ra loo...ah, better not.;)
 
My Geordie mate said we partied, then wrecked the place later. But him and his pals done in a few Gers bus windows after the game - from a distance ! :D
 
I used to have a Geordie rep come into my work from the mid noughties. He worked in Glasgow at the time of that match and drove down to watch it. He got stuck behind an RSC on the road between Carlisle and Newcastle. Said he'd never seen so many bottles and cans getting lobbed into the road in his life. Said the game was mental.
He went to Ibrox when he was up here, his experience never put him off.
 
A song is born...

The Mermaid was mentioned in a song back in the day, remember singing it often on our bus. Me and my wee pal decided to go and find this particular pub and had a nice welcome from everyone inside.

A song is born...(had to google it as I'd forgotten the words)

Here they are :))

If yer feelin tired and weary and yer heart just skips a beat.
You'll get your fcukin head kicked if you walk down Jamesy's Street.

Take a walk into the Mermaid and you'll hear the famous noise, get out ya f****n bhastards we're the Brigton Derry Boys.

We're the boys from the toll, we are Loyal and we're true, and when we meet the 19th Century Terrorists we are ready for a do.

To the cry of no surrender, surrender or you'll die,
Good luck tae the Glasgow Rangers and the Brigton Derry Boys.

I do remember this bit at the end though...

Too ra loo...ah, better not.;)


19th Century Terrorists turn about .....
you might get in to Bridgeton
....but you won't get feckin out


Mermaids gone
Keystanes gone
Umbrellas gone


Please support our Orange Halls on Tullis St
Rangers games, cultural events
Everyone welcome
 
I was on the Bo’ness True Blues Bus. The driver got a bit lost as we drove into Newcastle. I reckon we crossed the Tyne Bridge about 6 times before we knew where we were going. Sash Bash - magic by the way!

Before the game kicked off, a Bear laid a rampant lion flag over the centre spot. A Georgie ran on & started tearing it to bits. All of a sudden - noisy crowd reaction. The Geordie looked over his shoulder to see a Bear in full flight running towards him. He set off for the Newcastle end but was caught and chinned about the 18 yd line.

Don’t do pre-match entertainment like this anymore.
 
Bears stopped the away leg game for around 17 minutes. Geordie mate of mine still tells me he'd never seen anything like it. Was crapping himself he said :D
Was there,one of the highlights of my following Rangers career.Even though we lost,it wast still
a fantastic evening in Newcastle.We enjoyed it so much,me and one of my mates missed our bus
back home after the game.Took us three days to get home,walked most of the way to Berwick,
before we got a ride to Edinburgh,Then hid on a train back to Glasgow.:))
 
Was there,one of the highlights of my following Rangers career.Even though we lost,it wast still
a fantastic evening in Newcastle.We enjoyed it so much,me and one of my mates missed our bus
back home after the game.Took us three days to get home,walked most of the way to Berwick,
before we got a ride to Edinburgh,Then hid on a train back to Glasgow.:))
Now that's a story !
 
i was dragged on to the track behind the goal when the bottles were raining down
got bitten on the arse by a big polis dug as i tried to get back on to the terrace

WATP
 
I was at the first leg at Ibrox but remember crying my eyes out as my parents wouldn’t let me go to Newcastle for the second leg.
I had to go to school.
Hated them at the time but they probably made the correct decision! - maybees :)
 
A song is born...

The Mermaid was mentioned in a song back in the day, remember singing it often on our bus. Me and my wee pal decided to go and find this particular pub and had a nice welcome from everyone inside.

A song is born...(had to google it as I'd forgotten the words)

Here they are :))

If yer feelin tired and weary and yer heart just skips a beat.
You'll get your fcukin head kicked if you walk down Jamesy's Street.

Take a walk into the Mermaid and you'll hear the famous noise, get out ya f****n bhastards we're the Brigton Derry Boys.

We're the boys from the toll, we are Loyal and we're true, and when we meet the 19th Century Terrorists we are ready for a do.

To the cry of no surrender, surrender or you'll die,
Good luck tae the Glasgow Rangers and the Brigton Derry Boys.

I do remember this bit at the end though...

Too ra loo...ah, better not.;)

Beer Belly - although those were the words sang on the bus, the real old timers that used to travel on it back in the 60's sang these words to the first two lines, which I have always thought must have been the original words:

If you're feeling tired and weary and your heart just skips a beat
Shout '"Up with Devaleerie" as you walk down James's Street"

Eamonn Devalera was the president of the Irish Free State and the song probably originated from back in those days.
 
Dunno if you are kidding but away fans didn't need "tickets" because tickets were just regular "seats". To be honest I spent almostr 20 years home and away never missing a game following Rangers and never having a "ticket" between the late 60's and late 80's.

No, but taking a scaling ladder to make sure you got in showed a fair degree of forward planning.
 
It was without doubt the maddest game we ever played in. The police had no control over our massive support who found any means possible to get in. The perimeter walls back then were only about 3m high and because it was almost all terracing they lost control.
There were over 60k in the stadium at kick off.
There were a few “skirmishes” on the pitch as fans jumped out of wrong ends and ran towards their own supporters. Back then bottles were thrown following incidents on the pitch. I seem to recall this was the game where a Newcastle fan was on a stretcher and somebody ran on and kicked up up the ass !
The police had dogs but our mad squad just terrorised the poor Alsatians !!
It was absolutely mental.
 
climbed over the turnstile wall. Got a punty up...it was only about 10 feet high. saw the big wooden doors being crashed and supporters piling in. The ground was jam packed and that contributed to the overspill on to the pitch
 
My granda, and uncles Jim and Billy went with the mermaid bus I'm sure.

My old man and uncle John went with a bus running from the Blue Lagoon, further up Dalmarnock Rd.

Anyway, the convenor of that bus was a Sgt major type, and his catch phrase was; 'You gotta be joking.'

Questions asked of him and the answer would invariably be; 'You gotta be joking.'

Anyway on the road down to Newcastle the Sgt major made it clear the bus was leaving at eleven on the dot to come back to Glasgow. If you were not on the bus by eleven, too bad, you'd need to make your own way home.

So, the bus is full by eleven o'clock and the punters are sick and want to head back up the road, only one guy is missing. Guess who?

Yup, Sgt major still hasn't got back on the bus.

So a couple of minutes past eleven another guy comes to the front of the bus and asks, should we wait for Sgt major?

The whole bus replied in unison; 'You GOTTA be joking!'

I wish I'd been there to witness that.
 
I remember getting up for school the next morning and my Old Man arriving in bleary eyed and disheveled from the game and I was asking him twenty questions about the "riot" and him looking decidedly sheepish.
Fast forward less than a decade and he picked me up from Kinning Park in the early hours after returning from the Aston Villa game. "You lot are gonna get this Club in bother" says he.
Was it any worse than Newcastle Da?
Silent journey home.

From the late 60's through the 70's our support was mental. I was at Manchester in 74 and as above at the Villa game. We could have invaded a medium sized Military Dictatorship and triumphed with few casualties. Crazy times.
 
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