A Look Into Histories

A LOOK INTO HISTORY TWO HUNDRED AND THIRTY ONE

FORFAR ATHLETIC RECORD ATTENDANCE

In 1970 Forfar Athletic were a perennial member of the Scottish League second division, the only other division under the top one and they had entered the Scottish Cup at the First Round stage beating Dumbarton away from home 2-1 and that meant a second round tie in the last sixteen. There was an undoubted buzz around the town, famous for its meat Bridie when they were drawn out of the hat at home to Willy Waddell’s Glasgow Rangers. This would certainly be a money spinner against such a mighty side and it would prove to be so.

Our Match Programme is for that Second Round tie at Station Park on Saturday February 7th 1970 and a Souvenir edition was printed for 1 shilling. Frankly it was a very poor effort with a short Chairman’s welcome then reflections on their two previous meetings in 1958, Rangers winning 9 1 and in 1959 a 3 1 success for the Glasgow side on an ice bound pitch. The centre pages had the two line-ups and there were two pages of pen pictures which completed it. Nevertheless, the significance of the whole event makes it a collectors piece as the Attendance was a record 10,780, this filling the ground to its full capacity and a far cry from the present capacity of 6,777. Rangers won 7 0 without Jim Baxter or Willie Henderson in what was reported as a practice match, with two goals scored by John Greig a penalty from Kai Johansen and one apiece from Andy Penman, Colin Stein, Alec McDonald and substitute Sandy Jardine.

Even though the Rangers side were full of Internationals, Forfar had captain Archie Knox at No 4 and he went on to be Alex Ferguson’s assistant at Aberdeen and Manager at Forfar, Dundee and the Scotland Under 21’s.

Rangers were beaten by eventual winners Celtic 1-3 in Round Three and were runners up to Celtic in the League whereas Forfar Athletic were a very poor second bottom of Division Two just ahead of Hamilton Academicals.