RANGERS IN LONDON
1960 - 1971
Matches, Memories & Talking
Points
From The Reds, Whites and Blues
RANGERS IN LONDON
1960 - 1971
Matches, Memories & Talking
Points
From The Reds, Whites and Blues
Skinheads & Cavaliers
Wednesday 31st July 1968
EXTRACTS FROM BACKGROUND TO THE MATCH
· ON A SUNNY AFTERNOON IN THE SUMMERTIME? The Rangers Directors no doubt looked forward to the trip to White Hart Lane not least for the famous hospitality. A sumptuous pre match 4 course meal followed by cigars and drinks in the Blue room afterwards. The Rangers Board were then seated in their own mini section in the West Stand Directors’ Box with further refreshment at half and full time. Not many better ways to spend August afternoon.
· EXTRACTS FROM SPURS SINCE 1962 : YOU CAN’T WIN THEM ALL In between breaks during the pre-season, the players talked about cars, girls, clothes, holidays, money and music. Some things never change! It was not so much this, but Bill Nicholson and his assistant Eddie Baily, were now coming across a new problem. A generation gap had grown between them and their players. The players had total respect for their manager, they only had to look at his record and see the admiration the senior players had for him. They also respected the achievements of Eddie Baily and enjoyed their banter with him. A teammate of Nicholson’s in the push and run team and former England international, Baily could even bring a smile to the face of that dourest of men ex Spurs full back, Alf Ramsey. He was honest, passionate and knew what he was talking about. Both Baily and Nicholson served in the Army during World War 2 and somehow found it harder to empathise and relate to the new breed of more cosseted and independent minded players.
· Extracts From Spurs Players And Style 1968
Defence and Midfield Pat Jennings, one of football’s all time great goalkeepers. Reliable and consistent but also capable of making spectacular saves. Brave and powerfully built, he had a massive kick that could change defence into attack. In the 1967 Charity Shield, his wind assisted clearance resulted in a goal! His long arms and giant hands enabled him to make impossible one handed saves and he could also improvise cleverly with his feet. Unflappable on the pitch a picture of calmness and reassurance. Rated by some at the time to be better than Gordon Banks.
Phil Beal played at full back or centre half. Defensive minded and very efficient. A tight marker who broke down attacks on the Spurs defence. Some felt that he should have made more creative use of his skills.
Cyril Knowles was an excellent full back. Attack minded, highly skilled and a robust tackler. Capped by England he became a nationwide cult figure in 1973 when the Punters released the song ‘Nice One Cyril’ in tribute to him.
If Pat Jennings did not collect a cross, centre half Mike England would head it clear. The Welsh International was a £95,000 signing from Blackburn in 1966 (a record British fee for a defender). Tall, superb in the air and naturally powerful in the tackle. Also very comfortable on the ball and able to pass the ball into midfield.
Pete Collins joined Spurs in January 1968. Originally his fee was £5,000 and Chelmsford City received a further £4,000 when he completed his 10th appearance. A natural centre half, Well built, a powerful tackler and good header of the ball. When not playing alongside Mike England, he was well suited to playing an anchor role in midfield.
England international, Allan Mullery was signed from Fulham for £72,500 (a record fee for a half back.). The right half took some time to win over a critical crowd. However his passionate Captaincy and total commitment on the pitch had won over sceptics. They had come to realise there was no replacement for Mackay, but their new replacement matched their hero’s appetite and passion for the game, if not quite his skills.
Terry Venables appeared for England at every level. (Schoolboy, Amateur, Youth, Under 23 and Full.) As a young teenager some tipped him to be as good as Duncan Edwards. (Perhaps the greatest all round midfielder in English history who perished at Munich in 1958.) Venables did not go on to emulate the England great. As a young teenager he too was big for his age and an excellent all round player. But he stopped growing when his counterparts were getting stronger and faster. He became more a skillful player than an all rounder in the revamped Chelsea of Tommy Docherty. An independent thinker and leader, the Doc felt that Venables was undermining his authority and discipline at the club and sold him to Spurs in 1965. Whilst Mullery was eventually accepted, the fans at White Hart Lane never really appreciated Venables style of play and perhaps did Venables could have done more to alter his style. (See QPR 1969)
What If? In my view, this was not far off from being a great team. Defence and attack were potential ‘Champions’. For me, the weaknesses were
(1) Not enough home grown players.
(2) The first team squad was too small. The first XI had a lot of quality but if there was a spate of injuries, the team might struggle.
(3) In midfield, Mullery was a top quality all rounder and leader whose forte was tackling. Assuming a limited budget, Collins could have joined him an anchoring role. Allowing the full backs to run on.
For me, Venables and Robertson were the weak links. Not as individuals but as part of a team pattern. They lacked the consistency of creativity to feed the ‘ravenous’ forwards. In addition to Collins and Mullery, in a more advanced wide midfield position should have been two quality passers of the ball to feed the forwards. The two ‘pacier’ attacking midfielders would be fed by a ball playing defence and the 2 ball winners in midfield. Nicholson was a fan of wingers and the thrilling play they created. But given the cloth at Spurs disposal, I wonder with hindsight if they might have cut it just a bit differently?
Alex Cameron (Friday 2nd August) was concerned that the Rangers dressing room was split, with different opinions on the state of their club.
He quoted one anonymous player as saying “There was nothing wrong with Rangers,” and that they would win the League in the forthcoming season.”
However another anonymous player told him, “They were a poor side by Rangers standards and would have to sign a quality player immediately.” Cameron indicated that this was, “very much the Boardroom line.”
But yet another player disagreed with this thinking. “Every team hits a bad patch. OK we’ve been having one. But surely we can’t be as bad as all that, for we took 3 points off Celtic and finished 2nd to them in the League. Of course we threw points away but this can damn well happen to anyone.”
Bertie Mee’s Assessment When Arsenal arrived in town for their big Saturday game, the Daily Record caught up with Bertie Mee. Having made the usual noises about expecting a tough game at Ibrox, he made these observations. “I was impressed by several Rangers players. Greig, McKinnon, Henderson and Johnston. They looked good.”
“Admittedly there was a bit of trouble in defence. They looked unsettled.” (He went on to say he expected this to be remedied by the time they faced Arsenal.)
Rangers and Corby : Rangers have a massive fan base in Corby, Northamptonshire, England. The Corby Rangers Supporters’ Association once claimed to be the biggest ‘ex-patriot’ Soccer Supporters’ Club in the World. Boasting to this day its very own Social Club.
Corby was a major producer of steel and in the 1930’s a Scottish Company called Stewarts & Lloyds located there. Their iron and steelworks became one of the biggest in Europe. As their plant grew, they constantly sought more employees and large numbers of Scottish folk followed the company down south. (Coventry and Luton also contained a significant ex-pat Rangers presence. Many fans had relocated to work in the growing car manufacturing industry in these towns.)
· NOW FOR A EUROPEAN LEAGUE! Ron Trevorrow of the Evening Times writing for the 1968-69 Rangers Supporters’ Association Annual felt that a European League was not so faraway. He felt that the Old Firm were “propping up the sagging structure” of Scottish football. I.e. the small clubs with no chance of competing with the Old Firm and that the upshot was that this had served to intensify the ‘Old Firm duels’. He raised the question “How much longer will these clubs be content to participate in domestic competitions in order to gain entry into Europe?” With the advent of jet travel he concluded that he, “Day must be approaching when we will see the formation of a British League and ultimately a European League.” One could argue that Ron Trevorrow has been proved right with the Champions League and UEFA Cup formats.
· EXTRACTS FROM THE RISE OF THE ENGLISH FOOTBALL HOOLIGAN Football hooliganism has contrary to what has sometimes been written, always been with the game. However around 1967 it took on a new format. In the past, major fighting between rival sets of fans tended to be limited to the ‘local derby’ fixture as few fans were able to follow their teams around the country. Therefore hooliganism tended to take the form of pitch invasions, objects thrown at the Referee or players or the occasional lone fan running on to the pitch to remonstrate with either. Normally the result of something that had taken place on the pitch.
However this pattern changed as large groups of youths and young adults started to travel to away games many miles away from their home towns and cities. They were able to do this partly because…………..
· THE PROPHETIC THOUGHTS OF GENERATION X Between January 1963 and June 1964 Charles Hamblett and Jane Deverson surveyed the youth of Great Britain. They titled their book ‘Generation X.’ Their research took place at the time of violent clashes on the seaside and in local areas between mods and rockers. The same words that were used to describe the protagonists by the media and judges were in time to be switched to the football hooligan. Such words as vermin, immature, little horrors and wild ones were used to describe them. Indeed as football hooligans have since tried to explain there is a buzz to their activity that they are unable to describe. A mod commented on the seaside clashes, “it’s something that gets into you. You don’t know what it is. I can’t explain it – you just go wild.” Another youth described the pleasure of how, “doing things for kicks is wonderful because it releases tensions and works out frustrations.” He elaborated on the need for thrills for excitement, the appeal for anything dangerous and the need to let oneself go. Most prophetically the authors predicted, “We are moving into the super-market age of hooliganism. Youngsters who in the past would have fought out their battles in their own neighbourhood now have the money and means to go to Brighton – or anywhere else.”
As the cult members of the mod and rocker fraternities split up through a mixture marriage, love, career and ambition, the next generation of youngsters sought to create their own new cult.
EXTRACTS FROM SKINHEADISM Nobody knows when and where exactly the cult of the skinhead first emerged. It is however widely credited with having been born in East London around 1966-67. This part of London previously boasted tough mods, who were more interested in fighting on the seaside than talking about scooters. Shaved hair was nothing new in itself. During the English Civil War, the Roundheads got their name as a reference to the sizeable London contingent from the London Apprentices who shaved their hair to protect them from woodlice and other germs. More recently, publicity loving footballer Derek Dougan, shored his locks in the early 1960’s when he played for Aston Villa. Some ascribe the hairstyle to young toughs who had just left borstal where their hair was cut short. Others believe it was a deliberate attempt to be the dyametric opposite of the ‘hippy’. Then there is the school of thought that says it was a natural progression from the tidy short hair of the mod. The explanation that it is to do with the ‘army’ is probably a wrong one, as some Skinheads near army barracks liked nothing better than to fight with ‘Squaddies’. Exact Skinhead styles of dress changed with regular occurrence although the Dr Martens boots, Ben Sherman shirts and Crombie overcoats were ubiquitous….