The Scottish Premier Division 1979-80 - Rangers finished 5th

Alex Venters said:
Demolished them, as you say, in the Dryborough Cup. I'm sure we beat Hibs at Easter Road early in the League campaign and we were looking good. We then played Celtic at Ibrox, on the day The Copland Rd Stand was opened, played them off the park, went 2 goals up in the second half, then they went down to 10 men when Aitken was sent off. We proceeded to throw away two goals in the last 6mins. We certainly never recovered from that.
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Two succesive league games blown against ten men.

If May 21st was the signpost to where we were headed, this following season saw us firmly setting off down the road.
 
HandsomeHead said:
There were very few glimmers of light.

When Wallace returned in November ‘83 we only lost twice in the league in the next year and won two League Cups in between. There was a feeling that we might be on our way back, but it just never seemed to materialise.

We then started the ‘85/86 season well and were top of the table after the first seven games and a few were daring to believe it might just be be our season only to end up in fifth place needing a win on the final day to scrape into Europe.

‘79/80 was no better. St. Mirren finished above us, FFS!
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In many was 1985/86 stands alone.

The only season in our history that saw us lose more league games than we won.
 
Alex Venters said:
They say it's darkest just before the dawn and by christ it was dark in those early months of 1986, as it had been for most of the previous 6 years.

I remember talking to my dad and uncles at the time and all of us were in despair, bereft of hope.

Dark days indeed.
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Aye, you're right that it's darkest just before the dawn Alex. Thankfully the dawn came though.
 
All my yesterdays are on this thread. To put it in a nutshell, it took us until the day that Souness walked into Ibrox to recover from that night we lost the league against that mob at Parkhead in1979.
 
ssblue said:
Pretty sure in 83/84 we were in the bottom 2 in late November.
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Ouch!

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Boldvale said:
no, we were still paying record transfer fees for Ian Redford, Cammy Fraser, Iain Ferguson etc. Anyone in fact who had a good game against us.
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Let's not forget Redford was a CF and we played him everywhere but there and often on the left and even at LB.
 
L&D RSC said:
Reading the story of the season bit underneath, the filth were 7pts clear in April but ended up losing the title by 7pts.

I know we were brutal back then, but that is an almighty arse collapse from them.
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I remember Dundee beat them 5-1 at Dens in that period. A result way beyond us at the time.

McNee never forgave McNeill for losing that one and there was something similar in 1983.
 
DylanGer said:
We win the game at the Piggery Greig has a treble in his first season.
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However, we didn't. So, the season ended up a disaster when all is said and done.

Again though, anyone who watched us that season would have felt the same. We stuttered and spluttered consistently throughout the season at home and one week in October sums it all up.

Peat PSV away on the Wednesday; an historic result and lose at Firhill on the Saturday. That was the season laid bare, right there in just four days.
 
Alex Venters said:
He had a good first season when you think he won the two cups and put Juventus and PSV out of the European Cup.
However the League was thrown away at the start where we failed to register a win in our first 5 or 6 games. We got ourselves back into it and had it in our own hands going to Celtic Pk with three games left, we were 1 goal up and a man to the good, when his negativity cost us dearly.
We went out of the European Cup to a decent Colonge side, but we had beaten better in the earlier rounds.
It was all downhill from there.
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I was at all the games you mention,and as others have said,nobody could have imagined the decline that followed.
 
mdingwall said:
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We finished 5th in 1986 as well. Wallace was sacked and replaced by Souness. Why didn't we make the move to replace Greig in 1980? Rumours surfaced about Brian Clough being approached early 80s, unsure if they were true? Although that may have been in 1983 when Greig resigned.
 
Elm1872 said:
The figure £210,000 for Redford came into my head, sure that's how it was reported at the time.
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Redford was that fee. Patterson was £225,000. I'm sure Gregor Stevens was £150,000. Jim Stewart £100,000, Prytz £100,000. Sandy Clark £165,000. Jeez, a million quid on that guff.

That said Jim Bett, John McClelland and Ally McCoist were great signings. Bett early 80s was a fabulous player.
 
Prytz and Bett was a decent midfield.
It wasn’t that we were utter gash ( although the name Billy Urquart springs to mind- was that this era?)it was more that Scottish football had greater depth than before or since. We had stood still. Even St Mirren had excellent players Peter Weir for example.
 
DennyFord5 said:
Redford was that fee. Patterson was £225,000. I'm sure Gregor Stevens was £150,000. Jim Stewart £100,000, Prytz £100,000. Sandy Clark £165,000. Jeez, a million quid on that guff.

That said Jim Bett, John McClelland and Ally McCoist were great signings. Bett early 80s was a fabulous player.
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Stuart Munro at £25k ? was some signing.
The likes of davie mckinnon , nicky walker , hugh burns etc were crap compared to the quality of aberdeen, dundee utd and the tims.
 
DennyFord5 said:
We finished 5th in 1986 as well. Wallace was sacked and replaced by Souness. Why didn't we make the move to replace Greig in 1980? Rumours surfaced about Brian Clough being approached early 80s, unsure if they were true? Although that may have been in 1983 when Greig resigned.
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Fergie and McLean were the two top targets in 1983.
Both declined the job, although it was never formally offered to Fergie, it was his for the taking.
 
Blue boy said:
Stuart Munro at £25k ? was some signing.
The likes of davie mckinnon , nicky walker , hugh burns etc were crap compared to the quality of aberdeen, dundee utd and the tims.
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DennyFord5 said:
Redford was that fee. Patterson was £225,000. I'm sure Gregor Stevens was £150,000. Jim Stewart £100,000, Prytz £100,000. Sandy Clark £165,000. Jeez, a million quid on that guff.

That said Jim Bett, John McClelland and Ally McCoist were great signings. Bett early 80s was a fabulous player.
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A bit harsh on Prytz who was a good midfielder.
 
79/90 was before Bett, McAdam and Redford. It was still the dying embers of Wallace’s team plus John McDonald and Ally Dawson.

it may have been the nadir in terms of league position but for me it got worse the more JG brought his own players in.
 
Alex Venters said:
A bit harsh on Prytz who was a good midfielder.
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He was ok. Expected more for a guy playing for Sweden who played in a Euro final a couple of years before signing.
Trouble was so many of ageing team replaced around same time. Jardine, Forsyth, Jackson, McDonald, McLean, Parlane, Smith replaced by guys like McKinnon, Stevens, Patterson, Redford, Prytz, McAdam and Clark
 
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