To say that Sir Alex Ferguson’s relationship with Rangers is complicated is probably one of the biggest understatements in football.
As is well documented, Ferguson grew up in Govan in the shadow of Ibrox Park and was a keen supporter of the club.
His dream of playing for his boyhood heroes came true in July 1967 when he signed for Rangers after successful periods at St Johnstone and Dunfermline. He would make 41 appearances for the club, scoring a very respectable 25 goals.
However his dream moved turned sour after the Scottish Cup final of 1969 against Celtic. Rangers suffered a 4-0 battering at the hands of their most bitter rivals and Ferguson bore the brunt of the fallout after failing to mark Billy McNeil at a corner in the third minute, resulting in the Celtic captain scoring the opening goal.
Ferguson never played for Rangers again, and was made to train on his own before being moved on to Falkirk.
Ferguson maintains to this day that he was made the scapegoat because his wife, Cathy, was a Catholic. His evidence for this claim was that a club director at the time had challenged Ferguson about his wife’s religion and if they had married in a chapel.
This line has not always sat well with some Rangers supporters who are old enough to remember Sir Alex’s time at Rangers. They maintain that, as much as Ferguson was a committed professional, and very harshly treated after that final, the blunt truth was that he just wasn’t good enough to play for Rangers. And Rangers had form on dumping strikers on the back of one bad result – you only have to look at the treatment of Jim Forrest and George McLean after Berwick to see evidence of that.
Whatever the truth is regarding Ferguson’s sudden departure from Ibrox, his relationship with Rangers changed from that moment on. He remained a Rangers supporter, but there was also an element of hostility towards the club.
Ferguson saw out his playing days at Falkirk and Ayr Utd before moving into management at East Stirlingshire and then St Mirren.
When he took over Aberdeen in 1978, Rangers became the main target in his bid for success.
Ferguson made it his mission that Aberdeen would turn up to Ibrox – and to a lesser extent Celtic Park – and win. It was a mission he succeeded in, turning the Pittodrie club into champions of Scotland on three occasions and famously leading them to success in Europe by beating Real Madrid in the 1983 European Cup Winners’ Cup final.
Ten days after that famous victory in Gothenburg, Ferguson’s side faced Rangers in the Scottish Cup final. Aberdeen struggled badly throughout the game, but still came out on top thanks to a goal very late in extra time by Eric Black.
Despite the victory, Ferguson stunned viewers live on TV with an incredible outburst which was scathing of his team and their performance.
Ferguson admits now that part of the motivation for the outburst was the fact that his side had failed to hammer Rangers. He had wanted to twist the knife into his former employers by humiliating them. When Rangers outplayed Aberdeen, putting in a performance that merited victory on the day, Ferguson’s rage prompted an entirely over-the-top reaction which he claims he now regrets.
Ferguson would get another opportunity to twist the knife into Rangers a few months after that Scottish Cup victory when, after John Greig was sacked as Rangers manager, Ferguson spectacularly turned down to opportunity to take charge at Ibrox, deciding instead to stay at Aberdeen where he would enjoy further success whilst Rangers continued to toil badly under Greig’s successor Jock Wallace.
Three years after Wallace’s return, with the league title remaining elusive, he too was sacked and replaced by Graeme Souness.
Souness arrived at a club that would finish fifth, 15 points behind champions Celtic – the same amount of points they were ahead of bottom placed Clydebank.
Something drastic was required to halt the mediocrity that had engulfed the club, and David Homes looked to the former Liverpool captain as the man to provide it.
Souness set about his revolution by bringing in the likes of Chris Woods, Terry Butcher and Graham Roberts as Rangers looked to bring back the glory days. An early test of Rangers league title credentials came on 27th September at Ibrox as Alex Ferguson returned yet again to Ibrox with his Aberdeen side.
Rangers v Aberdeen was a fixture which carried an edge in Ferguson’s time at the Dons, with several notorious games between the clubs in that period – the most recent of which was at Ibrox in September ’85 when nine man Rangers slumped to a 3-0 defeat on a day that supporters in the old East Enclosure invaded the pitch.
However there was an extra edge to this particular game. Not only did Rangers have the opportunity to lay down a gauntlet to Ferguson and his side, there was also the added dimension that Ferguson had dropped Graeme Souness in final game of the Mexico World Cup against Uruguay just a couple of months before.
Ferguson had stepped up to manage the national side in Mexico after the sudden death of Jock Stein the previous year. Souness was the captain and also the head of the players committee.
Souness had enjoyed a good relationship with Stein, but relations between him and Ferguson were fraught and tensions were never far from the surface during team meetings throughout the tournament.
On one particular occasion, a meeting to discuss an SFA rule that stated players were only permitted one three minute phone call to their families twice a week led to a blistering and heated face-to-face argument.
Relations were soured even further when, after defeat in the first two games against Denmark and West Germany, Ferguson spectacularly dropped Souness for the final game – ending his international career in the process.
With such a backdrop, the scene was set for a potentially explosive fixture on 27 September. It was Rangers v Aberdeen. Souness v Ferguson. Sleeping giants v provincial upstarts.
Rangers went into the game having already suffered three defeats in their league campaign, the most recent being the previous week against Dundee at Dens Park. They could not afford another slip-up.
The first-half was relatively tame, with the only chance of note falling to John Hewitt who forced a good save from Chris Woods from distance.
The second-half would provide more drama, and it started early on after the break.
In the 49th minute, Ted McMinn cut inside from the left wing past Stewart McKimmie and passed it to Souness on the edge of box. Souness took a touch with right, moved it on to his left before unleashing a shot which flew past Jim Leighton, struck the post before rebounding off Leighton’s back and creeping over the line.
Souness ran to the Copland Rd stand in celebration of a moment that had huge ramifications. Souness had landed a retaliatory blow on Ferguson for his treatment in Mexico. But more importantly, Rangers had landed a blow on a club that had routinely turned them over in recent years.
Rangers took heart from the goal and had chances to increase their lead through McCoist and Souness, but failed to take them.
Aberdeen then slowly crept back into the game with chances of their own, but with ten minutes remaining the clincher came.
Rangers hit on the counter through Ally McCoist after a poor set-piece by the visitors allowed Rangers to break. McCoist ran in on goal and put it wide to Robert Fleck. Fleck returned it to McCoist, taking Leighton out of the equation, which allowed McCoist an easy tap-in.
Whilst McCoist and his teammates celebrated, Aberdeen players furiously surrounded the linesman protesting that McCoist was in an offside position. Future Rangers assistant manager Archie Knox had to be escorted back to the dugout by police such was his anger. But the goal stood and Rangers secured the victory, ensuring they had beaten both Celtic and Aberdeen in the opening weeks of the season.
Walter Smith realised just how big a result this was for Rangers stating: “During the week, Graeme and I had told the players to forget Rangers’ poor record against Aberdeen. We told them all that it was in the past, but really, it was still there, so this victory was an important psychological breakthrough”.
It would be the final time Alex Ferguson managed an Aberdeen side against Rangers. He moved six weeks later on 6 November to take up his post at Manchester United and would watch on from other side of Hadrian’s Wall as Rangers, the club he loved and loathed in equal measures, secured its first league title for nine years under Souness – ironically winning it at Pittodrie, adding extra emphasis to the feeling that the balance of power in Scottish football had been restored.
Ferguson would go on to enjoy huge success at Manchester Utd and is synonymous with the Old Trafford club. However, despite some friction, there is a feeling that he holds a special place for Rangers in his heart, and still speaks fondly of of the club to this day.
RANGERS: Woods, Nicholl, Munro, Souness, McPherson, Butcher, Fraser, McMinn, McCoist, Durrant, Cooper, SUBS: Fleck, Dawson.
GOALS: Souness (49), McCoist (80)
ABERDEEN: Leighton, McKimmie, Mitchell, Miller, McLeish, Stark, Bett, Connor, Dodds, Hewitt. SUBS: Robertson, Wright.
REFEREE: J Duncan (Gorebridge)
The Lower Third 