By Alistair Aird
After a tumultuous week that has yielded a first win in European competition over a Spanish side on Spanish soil, the return of the League Cup to Ibrox for the first time since 2011 and another league defeat for Celtic, Rangers face St Johnstone at Ibrox on Wednesday night. It’s one of our two games in hand over Celtic and provides an opportunity to close the gap to just two points and put pressure on the beleaguered league leaders ahead of our visit to their place at the end of the month.
History and current form suggest a home win is a formality. St Johnstone last won at Ibrox on league business in December 2017 – James Tavernier and Ryan Jack were in our starting XI – and that was their first away league win over Rangers since April 1971. Prior to that, the Saints had last marched into Glasgow and travelled back to Perth with full points on 21 December 1963. And that match will be the focus of this edition of Blast From The Past as it featured in one the most celebrated seasons in Rangers’ history, 1963/64.
Most Read on FollowFollow.com The FollowFollow.com Friday Preview – Hearts at Home You’ll Always Hear Us Roaring? In The Eye Of The Storm – Rangers 0-0 Celtic
Rangers were the reigning league champions when season 1963/64 got underway. Under Scot Symon, they only lost two of their 34 league fixtures in 1962/63, finishing nine points clear of runners-up Kilmarnock. They also hadn’t lost a league match at Ibrox since March 1962.
St Johnstone were also league champions in season 1962/63. They had topped the table in Division Two and were promoted to the top flight alongside East Stirlingshire.
Rangers started the season superbly. Five wins – including two 3-0 victories over Celtic – and a draw saw them top League Cup Section Four, and in the league, Symon’s side won 10 and drew three of the first 13. But that unbeaten run was halted abruptly by Hearts on 30 November. The visitors from Edinburgh were 3-0 up at half time, and when the scoreline hadn’t changed by the end of the 90 minutes, the Rangers players left the field to a cacophony of boos.
A 3-2 win at Tannadice a week later maintained Rangers’ two-point lead over Kilmarnock at the top of the table, but the Light Blues had started to concede goals. In the opening 13 games, the defence had only been breached five times. But the three conceded against Hearts and the two shipped against United were added to when a further three goals were lost in a 3-3 draw at Fir Park. And when St Johnstone visited Ibrox four days before Christmas, the ‘goals against’ column took another pounding.
There was some doubt as to whether the game would go ahead. Quoted in the Evening Times on the eve of the match, Scot Symon said that ‘The Ibrox pitch is flint hard and in no condition for football.’ Celtic, meanwhile, had taken to covering the Parkhead pitch with straw in attempt to get their match with Motherwell the all clear. In the end, both matches went ahead, but reporters were struggling to grasp why the Old Firm hadn’t taken heed of what Everton were doing at Goodison Park and fitted an ‘underground electric heating system.’
Rangers kicked off with Jimmy Millar wearing the number nine jersey. Jim Forrest had started the season superbly but found himself dropped for the midweek match against Everton that took place prior to the visit of St Johnstone. Ralph Brand filled in at outside left – Davie Wilson had broken his ankle against Berwick Rangers in October – and George McLean was deployed at inside-left. In the half back line, Wilson Wood continued to deputise for the injured Jim Baxter at left half.
Neither goalkeeper was troubled too much in opening exchanges that were punctuated by errant finishing. But Rangers eventually broke the deadlock nine minutes before the interval. Brand was played in by McLean, and he found the net with a shot that went through the legs of the St Johnstone goalkeeper, Harry Fallon.
The goal should have settled Rangers down and given them a platform to build from. Millar was denied what would have been his first league goal of the season by a timely tackle from the St Johnstone right-half, Jim Townsend, and on the stroke of half-time, McLean, in the words of Jimmy Dunbar of the Evening Times, ‘ballooned the ball over from 10 yards.’
Thus, Rangers were in front at the break, but parity was restored after 53 minutes when a chap called Alexander Chapman Ferguson lashed a shot into the net from 12 yards. And Ferguson added another goal to his tally six minutes later, hoovering up a rebound after Billy Ritchie could only parry a shot from Bobby Kemp.
Rangers were rocked but got back on level terms with 18 minutes remaining. Bill McCarry was penalised for handling in the penalty area, and Davie Provan stepped up to score from the penalty spot. In his match report, Dunbar talked of ‘much palaver’ before the kick was taken as the St Johnstone players had implored the referee, W. Mullan from Dalkeith, to consult with his linesman as they protested over the legitimacy of the penalty award. The linesman backed the referee, and the scores were level at 2-2.
The winning goal was scored four minutes later. Ferguson, who had been languishing in the St Johnstone reserve team, completed his hat trick when Alastair McIntyre nipped in ahead of Ritchie and squared the ball to the Saints number 10 to roll it over the line.
This was only St Johnstone’s second league win at Ibrox. Their first had come in 1925, and this victory cost Rangers top spot in Division One. Kilmarnock defeated Third Lanark 2-1 at Cathkin Park to supplant Rangers and take a one-point lead.
But Rangers recovered their poise. A Jimmy Millar goal gave them a narrow 1-0 win over Celtic at Parkhead on New Year’s Day, and in the 15 league matches that followed, their record was 12 wins, one draw and two defeats. The last of those defeats actually came against St Johnstone at Muirton Park on the final day of the season by which time the title had been secured. Rangers finished with 55 points from 34 games, six clear of runners-up Kilmarnock. A 3-1 victory over Dundee at Hampden secured the Scottish Cup too and completed the domestic Treble.
Incidentally, Alex Ferguson was prominent in another Rangers v St Johnstone league fixture. After leaving St Johnstone at the end of season 1963/64, Ferguson joined Dunfermline Athletic. He would go on to score 91 goals for the Pars, his 31 league goals in season 1965/66 making him the top goalscorer in Division One alongside Joe McBride of Celtic.
Ferguson joined Rangers for £65,000 in the summer of 1967. He made his debut in a 3-0 defeat against Arsenal at Highbury, and two days later, he scored a hat trick when Rangers defeated Eintracht Frankfurt 5-3 in a friendly at Ibrox.
Ferguson would score another hat trick later in the season, his treble among 10 goals Rangers scored in an emphatic league win over Raith Rovers at Ibrox in December 1967. But Ferguson would go one better on 2 March 1968 when he scored four goals when title-chasing Rangers defeated St Johnstone 6-2 at Ibrox.
He opened the scoring after five minutes with a header, but Gordon Whitelaw equalised. Although they were the only side in the UK with an unbeaten record in the league, Rangers didn’t play well in the first half, but buoyed by the goalscoring touch of Ferguson, they improved after the break. Alex Willoughby edged the home side ahead, and although Whitelaw equalised again, Ferguson made it 3-2 when he clinically despatched a penalty kick that was awarded for a foul on Willie Henderson.
Ferguson completed his hat trick with 13 minutes to go with a fine volleyed finish, and after Orjan Persson scored to make it 5-2, Ferguson completed the scoring after 86 minutes with a goal Glyn Edwards of the Glasgow Herald reckoned was ‘reminiscent of his third.’
Ferguson ended the season with 19 league goals, but Rangers missed out on the league title. They didn’t lose a league game until the final day but draws against Dundee United and Morton would prove costly too.
And that was pretty much that for Ferguson’s Rangers career. In October 1968, Rangers signed Colin Stein from Hibernian for £100,000, and he took the number nine jersey. He would score 13 goals in 18 league appearances, but even before he arrived, Ferguson had had limited game time.
Sandy Jardine had started the first eight league games at centre forward, with Ferguson only appearing twice as a substitute. Indeed, when Ferguson made his first start in the league – on 1 February – he did so sporting the number 10 jersey. With Stein and Willie Johnston suspended, Jardine deputised for the former at centre forward, while Ferguson stepped in at inside left for Johnston. He scored in a 3-0 win over St Johnstone – his third league goal of the season – but he would only score another four times for Rangers after that. Included in that count was a goal against Celtic in a 4-3 win in the Glasgow Cup semi-final. Willie Johnston scored a hat trick.
Although he was finally handed the number nine shirt when Stein was suspended for six weeks after he was ordered off against Clyde, Ferguson’s Rangers career ended on 26 April 1969. Detailed to mark Celtic captain Billy McNeill when defending set pieces in the Scottish Cup Final, Ferguson allowed his man a free header from a corner inside the opening minute. Celtic went on to win 4-0 and Ferguson never played for the Rangers first XI again.
The feel-good factor that is wrapping its arms around Rangers at the moment has to continue on Wednesday. But from that warm embrace, there needs to be a statement of intent: this title is ours for the taking but the players have to show us that they want it as much as we do. I’m sure they won’t let us down.
From Terrible to Treble? You know what? That might yet be the way in which history remembers season 2023/24 for Rangers Football Club.