By Alastair Aird
Two heavyweights of world football will fight it out in Scotland’s capital on Saturday when Rangers and Manchester United face each other at Murrayfield. And although it is only a pre-season friendly, the match is of vital importance for the two sides as they prepare for a season in which both are looking to buck recent trends and reestablish themselves as the preeminent sides in their respective leagues.
History shows us that no side has won more English top tier titles than Manchester United (20), while Rangers are currently the most successful side in terms of Scottish League titles with 55. But save for that 55th title win in season 2020/21, the last time Rangers were Scottish champions was season 2010/11, while United haven’t been crowned champions of England since season 2012/13.
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Although both sides are veritable behemoths, Saturday’s match will only be the tenth time they have played against each other. The first five of the nine encounters thus far were friendlies, while the last four were group stage matches in the Champions League in season 2003/04 and 2010/11.
United won three of the four Champions League matches. An early goal from Phil Neville gave them a 1-0 win at a raucous Ibrox in October 2003 and this was followed by a thumping 3-0 win at Old Trafford in early November. And seven years later, a resolute rearguard action earned Walter Smith’s side a 0-0 draw at the Theatre of Dreams before a late Wayne Rooney penalty separated the sides at Ibrox.
In terms of the five friendlies, Rangers were victorious in the fixtures played in 1974 and 1994, with United winning in 1953 and 1990. The other match ended in a draw.
The first of the encounters took place at Old Trafford on 23 April 1924. And the fortunes of both sides could barely have been of starker contrast.
Rangers, the reigning Scottish champions, had retained the title 18 days earlier with a 2-1 win over Hibernian at Ibrox. Jimmy Dunn had fired the visitors ahead, and they held that slender advantage going in to the final 10 minutes. But a penalty kick was awarded to the home side and converted by Davie Meiklejohn and the points – and the league championship – were secured in the final minute when Andy Cunningham found the net. The win also saw Rangers exact revenge on the Edinburgh side after they had eliminated them from the Scottish Cup at the same venue in February.
Bill Struth’s side were champions with three games to spare. Unbeaten in their opening 22 league matches – 15 wins and seven draws – Rangers had been dominant. Centre forward Geordie Henderson netted 19 goals in 31 league appearances, while the former Celtic number nine, Tom ‘Tully’ Craig, had weighed in with 12 goals in just 17 games. Goalkeeper Willie Robb played in all 38 league matches and conceded only 22 goals.
Meanwhile, in Manchester, United were playing Second Division football. Founded as Newton Heath L&YR Football Club in 1878, the club’s name was changed to Manchester United in 1902. They were league champions for the first time in season 1907/08, but the relegation they suffered when they finished bottom of the First Division table in season 1921/22 was the second time they had dropped out of the top flight.
The United manager was a Scotsman called John Chapman. He had been on the books at Rangers in season 1904/05, playing a couple of times at outside right in the Glasgow League against Partick Thistle and Third Lanark. And after managing Airdrie for 11 years, he had taken over the reins at Old Trafford in November 1921 when Jack Robson had stepped aside due to ill health.
Two days before facing United, Rangers had defeated Liverpool 2-0 at Anfield. The match was a testimonial for the Liverpool trainer, William Connell, but with Liverpool the reigning English champions and Rangers the Scottish equivalent, many regarded the fixture as some sort of British Championship.
But in truth, it was a no contest. Liverpool were languishing in fourteenth place in Division One and had won only three of their previous 11 league matches and exited the FA Cup when they lost 1-0 against Newcastle United. And that poor run of form didn’t end when Rangers came calling either.
The visitors put on ‘an exhibition of football that is seldom seen nowadays.’ One report even suggested Liverpool would have been ‘pulverised’ had it not been for the stoic resistance from their goalkeeper, the great Elisha Scott, full backs Tommy Lucas and Donald McKinlay and Jock McNab at right half.
Geordie Henderson got his head on a cross from Sandy Archibald to give Rangers a half time lead, and Andy Cunnigham sealed the victory when he picked up a pass from Alan Morton and ‘smote [the ball] with power and unerring accuracy’ beyond Scott.
Reports suggest that the Liverpool match was watched by a crowd of around 38,000, but the attendance at Old Trafford was more in the region of 10,000. The poor attendance could well have been down to the heavy rain that cascaded down or the fact that United were coming to the end of wretched season that would see them finish fourteenth in the 22-team Second Division.
The Rangers XI showed three changes from that that had comfortably beaten Liverpool.
John McGregor was drafted in to replace Alan Morton on the left wing just as he had done 11 days earlier against Morton in a league match. The Wee Blue Devil had been absent on that occasion as he was playing for Scotland against England at Wembley. This would be one of only 11 appearances McGregor would make for the Rangers first team.
Tully Craig replaced Geordie Henderson at centre forward, while Tommy Muirhead came in for Andy Cunningham. That latter alteration meant that a bit of shuffling was required, with Muirhead playing at left half while Andrew Kirkwood filled in for Cunningham at inside right.
United were said to be ‘the more aggressive side’ in the opening half, with Willie Robb giving ‘a glorious display.’ He managed to repel all bar one of the United attacks too, but he was beaten by the former Airdrie player, William Henderson, who steered a header from a David Ellis cross beyond him.
But Rangers fared better after the restart and restored parity with 20 minutes left. One source suggested that the United goalkeeper, Jack Mew, had been beaten when Sandy Archibald’s shot had struck the United right half Frank Mann, while others credit the goal to Tully Craig.
Irrespective, Rangers were level and they thus returned home unbeaten after their two-game trip to the north of England. They would conclude their league campaign three days later with a 0-0 draw against runners-up, Airdrie, at Broomfield before losing out to Celtic in the final of the Glasgow Merchants Charity Cup at Hampden.
Almost 20 years later, a royal occasion presented Rangers with an opportunity to face Manchester United again.
Arranged to commemorate the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, four teams from England – Arsenal, Newcastle United, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur – and four from Scotland – Rangers, Aberdeen, Hibernian and Celtic – entered a knockout competition called The Coronation Cup, with Rangers and United pitted against each other in the opening round on 13 May 1953.
The match was played at Hampden at the end of season that had witnessed Rangers winning the last of Bill Struth’s 18 league titles – the Light Blues had pipped Hibernian on goal average – and also lifting the Scottish Cup thanks to a 1-0 win over Aberdeen in a replayed final.
United had been Division One champions in season 1951/52, but had ended the current season in eighth place, eight points adrift of champions Arsenal. They had also lost their final league match of the season by five goals to nil against Middlesbrough at Ayresome Park.
But they would upset the odds and score a 2-1 victory over what was a weakened Rangers side.
The redoubtable Ian McColl had missed only two matches all season prior to this one, but having been absent when Rangers drew 1-1 against Queen of the South in the final league match and also when Queen’s Park won the semi-final of the Charity Cup on the toss of a coin, injury would also rule him out at Hampden. And he would be joined on the sidelines by Sammy Cox and Derek Grierson too.
Grierson had enjoyed a magnificent season. He netted 23 goals in 30 league games, a further five in the Scottish Cup and three in the League Cup. His two Glasgow Cup goals and a strike against Queen’s Park in the previously mentioned Charity Cup loss took his total to 34 goals in 47 appearances. But injury ruled him out of the United match which meant a chap called Peter Hunter McMillan was drafted in for his debut.
McMillan, who had been signed from Benburb, made an immediate impact too, opening the scoring after only seven minutes. He headed a cross from Johnny Hubbard beyond the reach of the United goalkeeper, Jack Crompton, but after that ‘his immaturity in the face of experienced and crafty opponents was obvious’ according to the ‘Football Correspondent’ in the Glasgow Herald. McMillan would play a further 10 times for the first team, scoring goals against Motherwell and Falkirk.
The writer also felt that the replacements for McColl and Cox – Rex Dunlop and Willie Pryde – ‘fell short of the regular players’ standards’ although it should be noted that United were also missing two of their top players, with Tommy Taylor and Johnny Berry in Argentina representing England.
Rangers led by McMillan’s goal at the interval, but within 11 minutes of the restart, they found themselves 2-1 behind. Stan Pearson scored the equalising goal after 52 minutes when he pounced on an errant pass from Willie Woodburn, and four minutes later, Jack Rowley added another. Incidentally, only Wayne Rooney, Sir Bobby Charlton and Denis Law have scored more goals for United than Rowley did.
If any of the teams was going to add to the scoring it was United – their inside-right, Johnny Downie, struck a shot against the post – and they progressed to face Celtic in the semi-final. They were beaten 2-1 by the side that would defeat Hibernian in the final to win the trophy.
Another two decades would pass before Rangers faced United again. Their third encounter was at Old Trafford on 9 March 1974 towards the end of what was a wretched season for Rangers.
Managed by Jock Wallace, the side had failed to build on their memorable 3-2 win over Celtic in the 1973 Scottish Cup Final. Five defeats in 17 league games at Ibrox accounted for a failed title challenge, while Dundee had hammered Wallace’s side 3-0 in the fourth round of the Scottish Cup. A 3-1 loss to Celtic in the last four of the League Cup meant that there would be no major silverware in any of the cabinets in the Trophy Room at Ibrox.
But the predicament of Rangers was nothing compared to that of Tommy Docherty’s United. They would be relegated at the end of the season for the first time since 1938, and their 1-0 win over Shefield United the week before the visit of Rangers was their first since the end of December and just their sixth in 30 Division One matches. They had lost 1-0 at home to Ipswich Town in the fourth round of the FA Cup.
In terms of the match itself, it was far from friendly. There was unrest among the supporters before kick-off – Jock Wallace had to come out and appeal for calm – and that filtered on to the pitch too. In a tempestuous match, John Greig equalised an early goal from Brian Greenhoff three minutes into the second half, but United went ahead again when Alex Forsyth, who would later play for Rangers, scored with a free-kick from 25 yards.
Derek Johnstone pulled Rangers level when he got his head to a free-kick awarded after Derek Parlane had been fouled by Jim Holton. And with nine minutes to go, Rangers recorded their first-ever win over Manchester Unted when another future Ranger, Jimmy Nicholl, was penalised for a foul on Quinton Young. Parlane converted the resulting penalty kick.
The sides met for the first time at Ibrox in August 1990.
Rangers, champions of Scotland for the previous two years, welcomed a United side that had won the FA Cup a few months earlier. In a campaign that had witnessed calls for their manager, Alex Ferguson, to be sacked, United had finished thirteenth in the league but Lee Martin’s goal in the FA Cup Final replay against Crystal Palace was arguably one of the most defining moments in their history.
Rangers had their new signing from Monaco, Mark Hateley, leading the line. And Graeme Souness gave the fans a taste of what was soon to become the norm too when he named Mo Johnston as Hateley’s strike partner and relegated Ally McCoist to the bench. The other close season signing, the Dutch winger, Pieter Huistra, sat alongside McCoist in the dugout.
Despite being dropped after the 3-3 draw against Crystal Palace in the FA Cup Final, Jim Leighton was in goal for the visitors, and the United starting XI also included the likes of Steve Bruce, Dennis Irwin, Paul Ince, Mark Hughes and Brian McClair.
In the midst of a wet and wild night in Glasgow, the match was a tale of two penalties, both of which were missed.
The first player to err was Mark Walters. The Englishman had pounced when Mike Phelan gave away possession and as he rounded Leighton, he was brought down. The referee, Kenny Hope, awarded a penalty but although Walters sent Leighton the wrong way, he tugged his shot wide of target.
And Walters was involved again when United were given a spot kick after 63 minutes. He was adjudged to have impeded Russell Beardsmore, but Chris Woods kept the score at 0-0 when he dived to his left to save the penalty taken by his former Norwich City team mate, Steve Bruce.
Beardsmore, a second half substitute, would be involved late in the game too when he netted the only goal of the contest. Mark Robins, the hero of the hour back in January when his goal against Nottingham Forest arguably saved Ferguson from the sack, created the opening for him and Beardsmore, who had been with the club since signing as a trainee in 1985, slotted the ball calmly out of the reach of Woods.
The match marked another disappointing outing for Hateley. Although he had scored on his debut against Dundee at Dens Park, the English centre forward had been unconvincing since then in the fixtures against Dynamo Kiev and United. His cause certainly wasn’t helped by the perception that he had taken McCoist’s place in the team, but Hateley would soon redeem himself. He scored in the opening league match of the season against Dunfermline Athletic, netted the clinching goal in a 2-0 win over Celtic at New Year before he carved his name indelibly into the hearts of the follow followers with his brilliant brace in the final-day league decider against Aberdeen.
Hateley was still very much to the fore when United came calling again in what was the last friendly fixture to date between the sides. It took place almost 30 years ago on 6 August 1994 and synonymous with this one was the behaviour of one Eric Daniel Pierre Cantona.
The encounter was the 3rd/4th place play-off in the Ibrox International Tournament. Sampdoria and Newcastle United were the other two teams that took part. The Italians had come back from 2-0 down to demolish a lilac-shirted Rangers side 4-2 the previous day, while Newcastle had won the battle of the United’s on penalties.
Walter Smith rung the changes for the match with the Mancunians. Only Ally McCoist started both matches – after breaking his leg in April 1993, the Super one was still struggling to regain full match fitness after a stop-start season in 1993/94 – while the supposed blue chip summer signing, Basile Boli, was alongside Craig Moore and Steven Pressley as part of a three-man defensive unit. Ally Maxwell replaced a revitalised and reinvigorated Andy Goram in goal too.
Since their last visit to Ibrox, United had won the league for the first time since 1968, following up their inaugural English Premiership win in season 1992/93 by retaining the crown in 1993/94. They had also won the European Cup Winners’ Cup in season 1990/91.
In their starting XI a talented lad called David Beckham, but he would only last 45 minutes before being replaced by the enigmatic and often explosive Cantona.
A matter of weeks after being part of the Leeds United side that had been dumped out of the European Cup by Rangers, Cantona swapped the white rose of Yorkshire for the red of Lancashire. And his arrival would be the final piece of the jigsaw for Ferguson. He was instrumental in the two title triumphs and Cantona also netted two penalties in the FA Cup Final against Chelsea as United completed the Double in May 1994.
But he appeared somewhat perturbed as he strutted around the Ibrox pitch with his collar up, something that had become something of a trademark for him.
Rangers led 1-0 when he was introduced to the action. David May – who would have a spell on trial with Rangers in the summer of 2003 – had diverted a Gordon Durie cross into his own net three minutes before the interval, and McCoist was desperately unlucky not to double the advantage after 79 minutes too, his right foot shot thudding off the inside of the post.
But by that point, there was a sub plot involving Cantona and the young Rangers centre back, Steven Pressley. An early challenge from Pressley had clearly irked the Frenchman, and with nine minutes remaining, the referee, Andrew Waddell, saw fit to book him following another clash with Pressley.
That caution clearly lit the blue touch paper, as 60 seconds later, Cantona launched himself into a two-footed lunge at the Rangers youngster. The challenge warranted a straight red card and even for Waddell, who hadn’t exactly endeared himself to the Rangers supporters over the years, the decision to dismiss him was straightforward.
Remarkably, some five months later, Cantona was lunging in with two feet again. But on this occasion, his target was a Crystal Palace supporter at Selhurst Park. After being ordered off, Cantona took Umbridge at what Matthew Simmons said to him and decided to leap towards him ‘kung fu’ style.
Cue an eight-month ban and a press conference when Cantona spoke about seagulls, trawlers and sardines. But the fire for all that happened may well have been lit by Steven Pressley back at Ibrox in August!
The financial gulf between Rangers and Manchester United was starting to grow at the time of that match. The rich were getting richer, and soon Rangers, masters of all they surveyed, were left firmly in the rear-view mirror as they fought in vain to secure the European Cup for the first time in their history.
Thirty years later, the gap is gargantuan. In a week when Philippe Clement has had to tell the Rangers supporters that he has to sell before he can add reinforcements to his squad, United have spent £36,500,000 to sign Joshua Zirkee from Bologna and agreed a £52,000,000 fee with Lille to recruit the 18-year-old defender, Leny Yoro.
Saturday should be a no-contest, yet United come into the game off the back of some heavy criticism from their manager, Erik Ten Haag. The Dutchman was less than enamoured with the way his team played when they lost 1-0 to Rosenborg, with the stats showing United having only five touches in the opposition box and two shots on target.
The fact that both teams have been pilloried in recent times gives them a platform to prove a point. And although we won’t be able to gauge too much from the game in the wider context of whether success will be forthcoming or not, that doesn’t mean some much-needed confidence and momentum cannot be gleaned should Rangers secure a win in what should be another fascinating Battle of the Giants.