By Alistair Aird
Rangers face Athletic Club Bilbao in a mouthwatering double header in April. At stake is a place in the last four of the Europa League. Although Rangers have faced several Spanish sides over the years, this will only be the second meeting between the two clubs in a major European competition. The last came in one of the old guises of the current Europa League, the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup in season 1968/69. Ironically, it was also at the quarter final stage of the tournament. This is the story of that tie which took place at a pivotal point in the season.
In the 1960s, advancing deep into the latter stages of a European competition was a regular occurrence for Rangers. European Cup Winners’ Cup finalists in season 1960/61, they had also made the last eight of the European Champions Cup in season 1961/62 – losing 4-3 on aggregate to Standard Liege – and season 1964/65 when they were pipped by three goals to two by Inter Milan. Another appearance in the final of the Cup Winners Cup followed in season 1966/67 and in season 1967/68, a debut appearance in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup had been ended at the quarter final stage by Don Revie’s Leeds United. You could even throw a semi-final appearance in the European Champions Cup in season 1959/60 into the mix.
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Season 1968/69, the first full season under the guidance of Davie White, would be no different. Vojvodina Novi Sad, Dundalk and DWS Amsterdam were beaten in the early rounds, which set up a head-to-head with Athletic Club Bilbao for a place in the semi finals.
The first leg of the tie was at Ibrox on Wednesday 19 March.
Rangers had romped to a 6-0 win over Clyde the previous Saturday. But the win, which kept Davie White’s side two points behind Celtic in the title race, came at a cost.
Colin Stein, who scored a hat trick, was ordered off following an altercation with Eddie Mulheron. The dismissal would effectively end Stein’s season. He had been sent off after 33 minutes of the match between Raith Rovers and Hibernian on 14 September – Rangers defeated Celtic 4-2 on the Parkhead that day – and had then been suspended for 28 days after being dismissed by referee Jimmy Callaghan in a 3-3 draw against Kilmarnock at Rugby Park in January. A heavier sanction was therefore expected when he went in front of the SFA’s Referee Committee.
And that is exactly what transpired. Stein was suspended for five weeks. He played in only one of the last eight league games and Rangers dropped points in four of those fixtures. Stein, who had scored 13 goals in 18 league appearances since signing from Hibernian for £100,000 at the end of October 1968, was sorely missed. Sandy Jardine, Alex Ferguson and Andy Penman deputised at centre forward but between them could only muster four of the 12 league goals Rangers netted.
In the meantime, Stein was part of 16-strong party that travelled to Largs to prepare not only for the clash against Bilbao but also for the Scottish Cup semi-final against Aberdeen that was due to take place at Parkhead three days after the Spaniards had visited Ibrox. Also included was Willie Henderson even though he had picked up a nasty knee injury against Clyde.
Glasgow was subjected to flurries of snow in the days leading up to the game. But the game wasn’t in jeopardy. The snow showers forecast was to be in the words of the Glasgow weather centre ‘intermittent’ with snow that was ‘wet’ meaning that is was ‘unlikely to lie on the streets, the terracing or the pitch.’ The game would go ahead as planned.
Henderson passed a fitness test which meant that White named the same matchday squad of 12 players that he had done for the comprehensive win over Clyde.
His starting XI was:
Norrie Martin, Kai Johansen, Willie Mathieson, John Greig, Ronnie McKinnon, Dave Smith, Willie Henderson, Andy Penman, Colin Stein, Alex Ferguson, Willie Johnston
Orjan Persson was the solitary substitute.
Alongside Stein up front for Rangers was one Alexander Champman Ferguson. The big money buy the previous summer – he cost £65,000 when he was brought in from Dunfermline Athletic – Ferguson 19 times in 29 league appearances as Rangers were pipped for the title by Celtic by two points. But he had found himself sidelined after he was dropped following a 1-0 defeat against Celtic in a League Cup sectional tie back in August 1968. That meant Ferguson made only three substitute appearances in the first 21 league games. But he came back in from the cold to replace the suspended Willie Johnston for a 3-0 league win over St Johnstone on 1 February. His goal that day was his first for the first XI since he had netted twice in a 6-1 win over Dundalk at the end of October.
Writing in the Evening Times the following day, Gair Henderson reckoned that the Rangers players had turned Ibrox into a ‘torture chamber’ against Bilbao. After attacking from the off – an approach that yielded two goals inside the opening half hour – and producing ‘flashes of brilliance’, the home side embarked on ‘a long spell of futile stuff’ before striking late to bring ‘the glory and the joy.’
Although the pitch wasn’t white, the snow had left the going heavy, but the home side made the best of the conditions and an enterprising start was rewarded when Ferguson opened the scoring after just six minutes, heading a corner from Henderson into the net. And 20 minutes later, Rangers scored again when Penman advanced on the Bilbao goalkeeper, Jose Angel Iribar, and dinked home a second goal.
Although a goal from Javier Clemente halved the deficit, it took inspired saves from Iribar, who would go on to play more than 600 times for Bilboa and win 49 caps for Spain, to deny Penman, Ferguson and Stein before the half time whistle sounded. Rangers looked to be rampant, but a minute into the second half, an incident occurred that seemed to unnerve White’s side.
Stein was brought crashing to the sodden turf by the Bilbao left half, Jose Ramon Martinez Larrauri. It was the proverbial stonewall penalty kick. Captain John Greig, who had scored from the spot three times in the month of March and netted from 12 yards against Celtic on 2 January, stepped forward but his effort was more likely to take out bulbs in the Ibrox floodlights than trouble Iribar. Greig skied the ball over the bar, and that seemed to knock Rangers out of their rhythm.
With Henderson and Penman robbed of their first half ‘effervescence’ according to the Glasgow Herald’s Raymond Jacobs, the crowd and players started to get a little nervous. A one-goal lead would have been a precarious one to defend in the return leg. That prompted White to make a change, pitching Persson into the action at the expense of Ferguson.
In his match report in the Evening Times, Henderson spoke of the ‘obvious disgust’ of the Rangers supporters at the decision. It transpired that Ferguson had picked up a leg knock which according to White had ‘started to slow him down’ and that was the rationale behind the change. And it proved to be a masterstroke.
Willie Johnston moved to inside left which freed Persson up to take the berth on the left wing. The Swede had scored 20 goals in 49 appearances in his debut season at Ibrox, but after starting all but two of the opening 20 league games in season 1968/69, Persson was left out of a 3-0 win over Falkirk as he was suffering from a heavy cold. But he had come straight back into the team when he recovered only to be benched against Clyde because of a groin injury. Clearly, he hadn’t shaken off the effects of that ailment fully to start against Bilbao, but when he was pitched into the action, he shook Rangers out of their lethargy.
With 86 minutes on the clock, he picked up a pass from Stein and cut inside before driving a shot towards the goal. In fairness, Iribar, stellar up to this point, should have stopped it but allowed the ball to squirm under him.
Suddenly, the relentlessness that had lit up the play from the home side early in the match was back. And Stein, who had a magnificent match and was referred to by Gair Henderson as ‘the great decoy of defenders’, added a fourth goal before the referee sounded his final whistle.
Ronnie Allen, the former West Bromwich Albion player that was manager of Bilbao, agreed with the sentiments of Henderson. He said, ‘In my opinion, Colin Stein was the difference between the teams. His willingness to chase and harry our defence and his almost uncanny sense of position makes him one of the best centre forwards I have ever seen. However, all players can have an off day and I sincerely hope that Stein chooses April 2 [the date of the second leg] as his off day.’
Rangers played three matches before they travelled to Bilbao. The following Saturday White’s side whacked Aberdeen 6-1 at Hampden in the last four of the Scottish Cup. Willie Johnston scored a hat trick. But two days later, title hopes were dented when Rangers travelled to Broomfield and lost 3-2 against Airdrie.
The home side took the lead after only three minutes. Andy Penman was punished for an errant backpass which allowed John Menzies to shoot beyond Norrie Martin. Stein then spurned a chance to equalise before half time when his penalty kick was saved by the Airdrie goalkeeper, Tom Clark.
Penman atoned for his first half error when he restored parity a minute after the restart. But two quickfire goals put Airdrie 3-1 in front and they held on for the points despite a late own goal from George Caldwell that made the final score 3-2.
It was a missed opportunity for Rangers. On the same night, Celtic drew 1-1 at Easter Road, but rather than be a point dropped, Jock Stein’s side stretched their lead to three points.
The last match played before the second leg was a league fixture against Raith Rovers at Ibrox. This would be the first match that Stein would miss due to the suspension he received following his dismissal against Clyde. The SFA Referee Committee decreed that the punishment for a third ordering off of the season would be a ban from all domestic games between 27 March and 1 May. That meant Stein would miss all the remaining league games, and the Scottish Cup Final against Celtic. Willie Allan, the SFA secretary, also stated that Stein wouldn’t be considered for selection for the World Cup qualifying match for Scotland against West Germany on 16 April.
Stein was missed immediately. Rangers struggled to break down a resolute Raith and with a minute to go, the scores were tied at 1-1. Thankfully Willie Johnston was able to find a winning goal, prodding the ball over the line with a minute remaining.
The domestic ban meant that Stein’s last competitive matches of the season would be in the Fairs Cup. That accounted for the second leg against Bilbao and both legs of the semi final against Newcastle United.
The party travelling to Bilbao for the second leg encountered some travel issues on departure. The Evening Times reported that fuel faults in the Caravelle 10R aircraft meant that they were taken out of service by Iberia. Hastily rearranged travel plans saw the Rangers players fly from Glasgow to London and then on to Bilbao. Arrival time was estimated at 6pm which meant that the team met the deadline imposed for travelling teams in European competition by one hour. The deadline was such that opposing teams had to arrive no later than 24 hours before kick off.
Rangers had a doubt over the fitness of John Greig ahead of the match. He had picked up a thigh injury playing for the Scottish League against the English League at Hampden and had exacerbated the problem when he was in the team that left it late to pip Raith for the points the Saturday before the trip. But further inspection by the physiotherapist, Lawrie Smith, showed that Greig had a crop of boils on the bruised part of his leg. That left his chances of playing at 50/50 at midday the day before the game.
In the end, Greig made a starting XI that showed just one change from the first leg. Alex Ferguson dropped out of the squad and Dave Smith took his number 10 jersey. Greig took the number six vacated by Smith with Colin Jackson donning the number four jersey that had been on Greig’s back at Ibrox.
Rangers would lose the match 2-0 and come perilously close to being eliminated from the competition. On a pitch that Peter Hendry of the Evening Times described as ‘resembling a beach when the tide has just gone out with pools of water all over the place’, the home side were ahead after 11 minutes when their outside right, Nicholas Estefano, found the net.
Relentless pressure followed, but Rangers repelled what was thrown at them until a second Bilbao goal arrived 10 minutes into the second half. The Spaniards now went in for the kill, but they were denied by several fine saves by Norrie Martin. By the skin of their teeth, Rangers made it to the last four of a major European competition for the fourth time in their history.
But they would face Newcastle United at that stage without the suspended Willie Johnston for the first leg. Ten minutes from the end of the game in Bilbao, he was sent off for retaliation. Peter Hendry described the incident as: “Bilbao right back] Betzuen fouled Johnston, who retaliated in a flurry of fists which would have done credit to a top boxing promotion.’
With Johnston absent, Rangers drew 0-0 – Andy Penman had a penalty kick saved by Willie McFaul – and although he returned for the trip to St James Park, Rangers lost 2-0. The Magpies went on to defeat Ujpesti Dosza in the final which up until the 2025 Caraboa Cup win over Liverpool was the last major trophy that had been won by Newcastle.
The flight chaos that had dogged travel plans ahead of the game in Bilbao would be a hindrance again on the return to Scotland. With the Caravelle 10R aircraft still grounded, the team had to fly via London on a BKS Viscount. That meant a touchdown in Glasgow some 37 hours before the squad were due to face Dundee United in the league at Tannadice.
This proved to be a watershed moment. Four directors – Matt Taylor, Ian McLaren, George Brown and David Hope – decided that no longer would Rangers travel to away fixtures in Europe on scheduled flights. Instead, a flight would be chartered by the club.
Perhaps fatigue was a factor for Rangers lost 2-1 against United. The gap at the top of the table was now five points with five to play.
The following midweek a 0-0 draw at Pittodrie coupled with a 5-2 win for Celtic over Falkirk effectively ended the race for the title. A hat trick from Willie Johnston helped earn a 4-3 win over Celtic in the semis of the Glasgow Cup a couple of days later, and when Celtic drew 2-2 at home to Airdrie on the same day that Rangers defeated Morton 3-0 at Ibrox, a lifeline looked to have been thrown.
But only a point was gathered from back-to-back fixtures against Dundee, the second of which was played two days after Rangers were thumped 4-0 by Celtic in the Scottish Cup Final. Celtic were champions of Scotland and having beaten Hibernian 6-2 to win the League Cup, therefore completed the domestic Treble.
It was another one of those ‘what might have been’ seasons for Rangers. What if Stein hadn’t been ruled out of the run in? What if the flight back from Bilbao had run as scheduled and the players hadn’t had to play at Tannadice so soon after arriving back in Scotland? And what if Andy Penman had scored that penalty kick against Newcastle at Ibrox?
And that very much mirrors where the current crop of Rangers players are too. Season 2024/25 is very much a case of ‘what if?’ What if the four away fixtures over the festive break had been won rather than producing three draws and a defeat? There’s no doubt we would be in the throes of a bona fide title race. What if Clement hadn’t bowed to sports science and played his best team? And what if we hadn’t meekly exited the Scottish Cup against Queens Park?
But let’s take a positive approach to those what ifs. What if Rangers beat Bilbao over two legs? Is a return to the San Memes for the Final in May then a real possibility? And just like it was back in 68/69, we might just face an English side in the semi-finals. Admittedly, that requires a listless Manchester United to defeat Lyon, but it’s still a possibility.
Maybe just maybe we will rock Bilbao again, just like Stein and co did back in the months before the summer of 69. And after that? Who knows.
Barry Ferguson and his coaching staff have restored some stability and belief. Can we win the tournament? It’s a tall order, but Thursday nights are Rangers nights once again. Just like it was in 2022. And I for one have booked myself a seat on the bandwagon that might well just take us all the way in May.
Many thanks to Rangers Archive for their excellent graphics.