The Bear Hunter by John Irwin

Author:John Irwin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pitch Publishing
Published: 2017-03-15T00:00:00+00:00

Derek McInnes

DEREK MCINNES has the honour of scoring the final goal in Rangers’ nine-in-a-row years.

He scored the 674th goal of the glory run on 10 May 1997, in a 3–1 defeat at Hearts just three days after the ninth title was won at Tannadice, and the celebrations were no doubt still in full flow. The strike assured a place in the history books for the Paisley-born midfielder who lived the dream of playing for his boyhood heroes during one of the club’s greatest eras.

McInnes came through the ranks at nearby Greenock Morton and played there for seven years, until he was snapped up by Walter in 1995 in a £250,000 transfer. He made 27 appearances during nine-in-a-row, including 12 from the bench. His debut came in the eighth campaign, starting in the 1–0 win against Partick Thistle at Ibrox on 9 December 1995. He made four more starts that season, against Motherwell, Falkirk, Raith and Kilmarnock, and also came on as a sub versus Killie.

He was more involved in the ninth season, making ten starts and a further 11 substitute appearances. He played in the opening game, a narrow 1–0 victory over Raith on 10 August, and also featured twice against Celtic – once from the bench when we won 2–0 at Ibrox on 28 September, and as the number nine in a 1–0 away triumph on 14 November.

Derek was one of the few from the old guard to remain after Dick Advocaat took over as manager in 1998. He went to Stockport on loan that season, but did feature sporadically for the Little General, most notably in Europe, where he was used effectively in a sitting midfield role, but he moved on for regular first-team action in 2000.

Following a brief spell at Toulouse, he joined West Bromwich Albion and enjoyed three good years in England, leading to a Scotland call-up at the age of 30. He won two caps, against Denmark and Portugal, and then returned north in 2003 to sign with Dundee United. He moved to Millwall for the 2006/07 season and then finished his playing career with St Johnstone, where he was also appointed manager.

He guided the Perth team back to the Premier League in 2009, and his leadership skills triggered interest from Bristol City, where he was persuaded to take over in 2011. Although he kept them in the Championship in his first season, the move didn’t work out and he was sacked in January 2013. He became Aberdeen manager later that year, winning the League Cup in 2013/14 and also picking up the Manager of the Year award.

It was during his time out of the game between the Bristol City and Aberdeen jobs that I met him.

I was listening to Sportsound on Radio Scotland one Saturday afternoon when I heard he was the studio guest, so I made the short walk along to the BBC headquarters from my house in Ibrox and waited in the foyer for him to come off the air. The guy

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.