AHC: Break the Old Firm's dominance

1984-85.

The year of Penalty Shootouts...
 
The 1984-5 season was one of contrasts. On the face of it, it was one where Aberdeen not only retained their League Championship, but also won the double having also secured the Scottish Cup. This despite what was a significant decline in their performances over the last six league games, where they failed to secure one win.
 
Rangers had, by their standards a very poor season indeed. They were quite clearly hindered by a massive injury list but for the supporters, this was not taken as an excuse with the club finishing fifth in the Premier Division league table come May 1985. In addition to this, going out of the Bells League Cup at the Second round, losing 2-1 to Dumbarton at Ibrox was not to be accepted, defeat in the third round of the Scottish Cup, to Aberdeen by four goals to nil at Pittodrie. In terms of attendances, it was noted that the last home game of the season for Rangers against Greenock Morton was attended by just 12,201. The club was clearly in decline.
 
In Europe, the clubs fared no better, in the European Cup Aberdeen went out in the Second Round to Hamburg, whilst Dundee United(there by dint of being the holders), went down to the English Champions Liverpool over two legs. In the Cup Winners Cup, Hearts suffered the embarrassment of going out 3-0 on aggregate to part-time Íþróttabandalag Akraness of Iceland. In the UEFA Cup, the teams did just as badly, with Rangers and Celtic losing in the opening round, Rangers going down 1-0 over the two legs to Auxerre and Celtic on penalties after two 1-0 wins for either side to Rapid Vienna. In the European Super Cup Dundee United also went down on penalties to Juventus.
 
Dundee United, by their standards had a poor season. In the league, they finished fourth, having lost four out of their opening six games. Not helping was the fact that their team was slowly but surely getting taken apart. Mo Johnston, the signing from the previous season was sold to Barcelona for a very high £850,000 whilst Iain Ferguson went to Chelsea for the more modest £520,000. They struggled to find consistency, only managing to ensure fourth place over both Rangers and city rivals Dundee with a last day victory over already relegated Dumbarton.
 
It was, purely in terms of league football a good season for Celtic, narrowly finishing second behind Aberdeen who, almost inexplicably nearly surrendered a lead they had at one point of ten points. This was aided by a style of football which was praised as attacking and exciting to watch. Unfortunately, this style of football was not to be rewarded further however as the club went out of the League Cup in a shock result 1-0 to First Division St.Johnstone and to another Tayside team Dundee in the Quarter-Final of the Scottish Cup.
 
For once, the relegation positions were not seriously in doubt, with both Greenock Morton and Dumbarton having a torrid season, finishing many points behind eighth place Hibernian. Despite their poor league position though, Hibs season will be remembered by their fans for many years to come, with a 1-0 victory over Hearts in the League Cup final at a packed Hampden, John Collins scoring the only goal of an entertaining final. It was also an excellent season for St.Mirren, who somehow upset the odds and finished third in the league.
 
In the Scottish Cup, Aberdeen defeated relegated Dumbarton by the first ever penalty shoot-out in a Scottish Cup final, following a dour, goalless draw.

The first announcement of the investments of the Scottish Football Fund were announced in April of 1985, with a 6% profit, half of which was to be shared amongst the clubs, the other half to be reinvested. This meant that £95,000 would be shared amongst the Scottish Football League clubs. It was hoped that as the fund continued to grow, so would the money coming back into the game. The future looked bright.
 
Last edited:
1985-86

H E A R T S if you cannae spell it well heres what it says...........

Alex MacDonald had quietly built up a squad at Hearts which, whilst not expected to have title-winning aspirations. Figures such as Craig Levein and Sandy Clark had come in and were all pushing for first-team places. Somehow, come May, this team had won their first league title in twenty-six seasons. They also took part in the first ever live televised league game in Scotland, at Pittodrie against Aberdeen, a game they were to win 1-0.

Celtic had, over the period strengthened their squad and were pushing for their first title since 1982 had signed several players, including John Collins of Hibernian for £350,000 and Frank McAvennie from St.Mirren for £100,000. They started brightly, winning nine out of their opening ten games, including a sensational 4-0 win over a full-strength Aberdeen team at Pittodrie.

Hearts on the other hand, showed less signs of development, having a good, but not excellent six wins in the opening ten. Then, they started on a run of victories which saw them begin to shoot up the table. Celtic in the meantime, perhaps distracted by their UEFA Cup exploits, where they were to reach the Quarter-Finals, began to drop points, including a highly unusual match at Kilbowie, where they were to go down 6-5 to Clydebank despite at half-time being 4-1 up. The result tipping in the favour of Clydebank when Packie Bonner, the Celtic and Ireland keeper was sent off a minute into the second half for handling the ball outside the area.

Rangers won their first trophy since 1981, when in October they defeated Celtic 3-2 in the Bells League Cup final, courtesy of an Ally McCoist hat-trick. The league was not to be such a happy hunting ground for the light blues however, with the inconsistency of previous seasons remaining in their game throughout the campaign. Following a crowd of just 7,895 turned up in February to watch Rangers draw 0-0 with St.Mirren, talk of change in the Ibrox club began to grow, and it was agreed shortly after that Jock Wallace would retire from the job at the end of the season. This gave the Rangers board the time to look for a successor, which would it was believed take several months.

Clydebank were the shock team of the season though, to the extent that following a 2-2 draw against Aberdeen, the Aberdeen manager Alex Ferguson was reported to have said that the Clydebank team “has the attacking flair of Brazil and the defensive qualities of an amateur side”. It was as such that the Clydebank team finished fifth in the league, above Rangers for the first time in their history. There was no relegation due to an increase in the number of teams to 12 clubs, and this is all that saved Hibernian and newly-promoted Motherwell from the drop.

As the league campaign developed though, this became clear that it was going to be Hearts season, the Edinburgh club developing a three-point lead over Celtic with two games to go. Despite this, a shock 2-0 loss in front of 26,000 fans at Tynecastle saw the title go to the last day of the season. All Hearts needed to lift the title was a point at Dens Park. Even if they lost, Celtic had to overturn a six-goal difference deficit at Love Street against St. Mirren.

Thankfully for Hearts, a late winner, an own-goal from Dundee substitute Albert Kidd won the Tynecastle club their first league title since 1960. This also cemented their revival after just five years earlier when Wallace Mercer bought the club, there was talk of them possibly having to go part-time due to financial difficulties.

The season got better for the Gorgie club, when they completed the double, defeating Aberdeen in the Scottish Cup final in front of 75,481 supporters at Hampden. Gary MacKay and Sandy Clark scoring for Hearts, and Neil Cooper responding with a late goal for the Dons.

The Scottish Football fund returned a highly impressive 9.8% profit, ensuring £225,000 was shared out amongst the Premier Division clubs.

Scotland suffered tragedy during the season though, when the Scotland Manager, Jock Stein died of a heart-attack shortly after qualifying for the 1986 World Cup in Mexico against Wales. Alex Ferguson had agreed to take on the task of leading Scotland into the World Cup on a part-time basis, which saw Scotland qualify for the last sixteen of the World Cup for the first time, following a late Gordon Strachan goal against Uruguay. They went on, however to lose in the last 16 3-1 to Brazil.

On June 1st, following prolonged negotiations, Alex McDonald of Hearts became the new manager of Rangers Football Club, taking Sandy Jardine with him as his assistant. Hearts opted for Archie Knox of Dundee as their new manager. Dundee in turn appointed Stirling Albion boss, Alex Smith.

Meanwhile, in Perth ambitious new plans were in place for Scotlands first new custom-built football complex, with local farmer Bruce McDiarmid agreeing to donate land to St.Johnstone for the Second Division team to build a new stadium, and Asda agreeing to pay for the cost of construction. The ground, to be christened McDiarmid Park was to be one of the best new grounds in Scotland.
 
Last edited:
1986-87

Rangers Albert Kidd Moment.

The 1986-87 season saw possibly the tightest league title race in the history of Scottish football. Five clubs battled away in the hope of a league title, with the title eventually being decided on goal difference.

Before the season began however, all the talk was on the new Rangers management team of MacDonald and Jardine. Between them they made six new signings of players they hoped would help the club grow. Of these signings, Jim Bett and Alex McLeish of Aberdeen raised many eyebrows, as did those of Gordon Durie from Hibernian, Rangers having beat off competition from Chelsea for the signing and Gary McAllister of Leicester City. All in all, the combined value of the transfers also was seen as huge, costing some £2.1 million. It was clear that Rangers meant business and as such, for the first time in years, Rangers sold more than 20,000 season tickets, selling 23,500 overall.

The scenes at Celtic were equally fast-paced, with Celtic opting to sign Tommy Coyne of Dundee United, alongside a few foreign players, signing Hungarian international defender Imre Garabe of Honved and Jan Ceulemans of Bruges for £1.2 million. Frank McAvennie left Parkhead though, to sign for Everton in a deal worth some £1.5 million.

With the Old Firm clearly wanting their position back in he Scottish game, It was always going to be a struggle for the other teams, but they did manage to keep pace in the early games, with only a point separating the top six after eleven games. This gap was not to extend much as the season progressed, with every week one of the top six would take points off of one of their rivals. Indeed Aberdeen were in front at the half way stage, a point ahead of Hibernian, Dundee United, Rangers and Celtic with Hearts a point further behind. The race couldn’t have been closer. This was emulated in the League Cup which was won by First Division Airdrie, who defeated Dundee United 2-0 in the final.

As the season progressed, a major shock occurred at Pittodrie when on 6th November, Alex Ferguson stood down as Aberdeen manager, taking over from Ron Atkinson at Manchester United. As his replacement, Aberdeen opted for the unknown, choosing Craig Brown, the Scotland youth team boss to lead the team for the remainder of the season. Brown did well in retaining what was left of the squad together, signing Colin Hendry of Dundee as a replacement for Alex McLeish.

Dundee United battled bravely as the season began to draw to its climax, their tired squad having managed to go all the way to the UEFA Cup final, despite losing to IFK Gothenburg in the final over two legs. As a mark of gratitude to the club for their support who after losing the second leg of the final at Tannadice, cheered their victors, the club was awarded the UEFA Fair Play award.

As the teams went into the last day of the season it could not have been closer. Aberdeen were top on 60 points, Rangers, Celtic and Hearts were on 59, whilst Hibs and Dundee United were on 58 each. Aberdeen played Hibs at Pittodrie, Celtic played Dundee United at Tannadice, Rangers played Hamilton Accies at Ibrox and Hearts played Clydebank at Tynecastle. As the afternoon developed, the most unlikely outcome seemed possible. At half-time, Hibs were top of the league, being 2-0 up at Pittodrie, whilst Rangers were losing against Hamilton and Celtic and Dundee United goal-less.

As the games went into the second-half, Colin Hendry pulled one back for Aberdeen with a bullet-header from inside the area, putting them back on top over Hibs on goals scored. Rangers then took the lead at Ibrox putting them on top, again on goal difference.

The drama was not over however as with five minutes remaining at Tannadice, Jim McInally gave Dundee United the lead against Celtic to put them into second place, and in injury time at Ibrox Adrian Sprott equalised at Ibrox denying Rangers their first league title since 1978. Dundee United were for the second time in their history the champions of Scotland.

The anti-climax inside Ibrox over what might have been was finished off the next week when they lost the Scottish Cup final 1-0 to Aberdeen, in Craig Browns first trophy at the Dons.

In terms of finance, the Scottish Football fund benefited enormously from city, earning a massive 23% profit for the clubs, meaning £560,000 was shared amongst the Premier Division teams.
 
Top