I was one of the 12,000 who went up to Ibrox in ’69 – What a match and welcome… | OneFootball

The end of the football season is often dramatic, especially for teams fighting for a trophy, or in a brawl to avoid relegation.

This was certainly true for the Newcastle United team and supporters as the 1968-69 season was coming to a climax.

Our schedule was eye watering, kicking off with May 14th 1969 the first Leg of Inter Cities Fairs Cup semi-final v Glasgow Rangers at Ibrox.

Second leg a week later at St James’ Park and sandwiched in between, our final league game of the season against Liverpool.

Success against Rangers would extend our season even longer, with a two leg Inter Cities Fairs Cup Final beckoning.

You can imagine the excitement gripping Tyneside and beyond, after all, the Geordie Nation had been waiting so many years since 1955 for success, little did we know that in 2025 we would have been waiting decades for further success.

Twelve thousand travelling Newcastle United fans made the pilgrimage to take their place in the 70,000 crowd, I was thrilled to be part of our travelling support.

Our bus left Stanley to join a convoy making their way to a city well know for its hardness, the joke being that Glasgow was a place Englishmen went for laughs and came back in stitches.

The journey was quite uneventful, though as we got off the bus the driver asked if we could make our way quickly back to the bus at the end of the game, so we could get out of the city in case we were targeted.

After having been warned about the natives, I was somewhat surprised that our tickets admitted us to a part of the ground filled with Glaswegians. The team announcement informed us that our irreplaceable injured Irish international David Craig’s place had been taken by John Craggs, John McNamee was in for Welshman Ollie Burton and local Stanley Lad, Alan Foggon, was on the wing. The line up was:- McFaul, Craggs, Clark, Gibb, McNamee, Moncur, Arentoft, Robson, Davies, Scott, Foggon.

Admittedly, from memory the game was a scrappy affair, although late in the game Brian “Pop” Robson missed an open goal, probably a blessing in disguise as by then the Blue Army around us were well aware of our allegiance, maybe our black and white scarves gave us away.

The full time whistle blew and we confidently looked forward to the second leg.

As we left the ground it was evident we had made friends with a few of the Rangers supporters, they invited us to the pub round the corner for a pint which was hospitable of them, we even grabbed fish and chips on the way back to the bus. You can imagine our shock when on our return to the bus it hardly had a window left intact. We weren’t popular on our somewhat draughty return trip to Stanley.

The following weekend we played out a one all draw with Liverpool, our minds then turned their attentions to the second leg of the Fairs Cup against Rangers at St James’ Park.

St James’ Park in those days was almost entirely all standing with a capacity of just under 60,000. For the second leg, manager Joe Harvey made the following changes; David Craig replaced John Craggs at right back, Ollie Burton was back for John McNamee, while Alan Foggon was replaced by the more experienced Jackie Sinclair.

The caldron was initially lit when Toon centre forward Wyn Davies was involved in a bit of an altercation with Rangers Ron McKinnon early in the game, which resulted in bottles being thrown by the travelling supporters, this was followed by an invasion of the pitch.

When Jim Scott of Newcastle United scored early in the second half, the elated Toon Army took their turn to invade the field of play, by this stage it was obvious that the large police presence had lost control. An announcement was made that any further trouble would result in the referee taking the players back to the changing rooms.

When Jackie Sinclair added a second in the 77th minute it was the signal for Rangers fans to stream out of the Gallowgate End, intent that the game be abandoned and replayed. I recall bottles filled with urine raining down on the Geordie faithful, who by and large didn’t react.

After about 15 minutes the pitch was cleared and the referee brought the players back out to restart the game. It was reported after the game that over 2,000 fans invaded the pitch, 30+ arrests were made and 89 people were treated for injuries.

The Rangers Chairman, John Lawrence, seemed to be on TV, Radio and in newspapers for days afterwards, he appeared very genuine in his embarrassment and full of praise for the Geordie Nation.