By David Herd
Random events in Rangers history that happened in this corresponding week. Here are some memorable moments that happened between September 19 and September 25.
September 19 1995 – Rangers travel to Parkhead for a midweek League Cup quarter-final tie, the first trip there for over 18 months as Celtic begin the modernisation of their stadium. With both ends of the ground still rubble, Walter Smith’s men grab a 1-0 backs-to-the-wall victory. After soaking up sustained pressure from the home team, Ally McCoist scores the only goal of the game in the 75th minute, heading home at the back post from a cross by summer signing Paul Gascoigne.
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September 20 1980 – John Greig’s Rangers rack up their biggest ever away league win in the Premier League era, thrashing Kilmarnock 8-1 at Rugby Park. Goals by Colin McAdam, John MacDonald and Ian Redford had Rangers 3-1 up at the break, before goals rained past the hapless Killie goalkeeper Jim Brown in the second half. Sandy Jardine and Jim Bett scored in the second half, alongside another from Redford and two more by MacDonald to complete his hat-trick.
September 21 1946 – Rangers play St Mirren at Ibrox in the club’s first-ever match in the newly created Scottish League Cup competition. The 20,000 crowd watch a comfortable home win, with defender Sammy Cox scoring the first Rangers goal in the competition in the 30th minute. Further goals by stand-in winger Angus Stead, and a double by South African forward Billy Arnison complete a 4-0 victory for Bill Struth’s side.
September 22 1944 – Jim Forrest is born in Glasgow. A centre forward who burst into the Rangers team at the age of 18, Forrest had a remarkable goal scoring record. He scored 146 goals in just 166 appearances for the club, including an incredible 49 in just 37 League cup matches. These included four goals in the 1963 final and a double in the final the following year to beat Celtic 2-1. He never played for the club again after failing to score in the infamous defeat by Berwick Rangers in the 1967 Scottish Cup, a decision by the club that still to this day angers many older supporters.
September 23 1970 – after winning the first leg 3-1 at Ibrox, Rangers complete a comfortable win over Hibs in the quarter-final of the League Cup by repeating the scoreline in the return leg at Easter Road. Goals by Alex MacDonald, Graham Fyfe and John Greig see Willie Waddell’s men safely into the semi-finals where they would face Cowdenbeath.
September 24 – the only two men to have scored more than 300 competitive goals for Rangers share a birthday. In 1911, Jimmy Smith was born in the village of Slamannan. He would play for the club from 1929 to 1946, setting a goals to games record that remains unequalled to this day. And in 1962, Ally McCoist was born in East Kilbride. Now the most popular pundit on television, McCoist was the greatest goalscorer of his generation, the man who scored a hat-trick against Celtic in his first national cup final, and who went on to score goals in the biggest games all through his Rangers career from 1983 till 1998.
September 25 1982 – second half goals by Robert Prytz and Derek Johnstone give Rangers a 2-1 win over Alex Ferguson’s Aberdeen, the first time since 1974 that Rangers had taken full points at Pittodrie, and the only time they would defeat a Ferguson side in the granite city. It would be 1988 before another away win in the fixture.
