Wilson on the Wing by Davie Aird

Author:Davie Aird
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pitch Publishing
Published: 2020-06-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 9

TERRIFIC TIMES ON TAYSIDE

I MADE history in the early weeks of season 1966/67. On 3 September Rangers faced Kilmarnock at Rugby Park in the quarter-final of the League Cup and won 1-0 thanks to a Jim Forrest goal after 74 minutes. I was not part of the starting XI, but I was named as our solitary substitute, and when I replaced Willie Henderson I became the first-ever sub to play in a competitive match for Rangers!

The media felt I was tailor-made for the recently introduced role. Writing in the Evening Times, Gair Henderson opined that the substitute’s role was best suited to players that were versatile and could play in numerous positions. Gair reckoned that emerging youngsters should look to learn how to play in two or three different positions and also that, when signing players, managers would now be looking to establish not only the position a player played but also the positions they could fill if required. Although I wasn’t quite a youngster anymore, I had played in a variety of positions for Rangers and Scotland so it looked as if the advent of this role would be a good thing for me.

My impact in the Kilmarnock match was immediate, with Allan Herron of the Daily Record calling me a ‘human terrier’ and opining that I ‘fought for every ball like a sparrow fights for its daily bread’. Allan thought that my performance merited an extended run in the starting XI, but I remained a peripheral figure. The two Willies – Henderson and Johnston – were the main men on the wing, and I only appeared in six of the first 20 league games.

I did start the season in the team, playing at outside-left in our opening League Cup sectional tie against Hibernian at Ibrox. Bud was in the midst of an SFA-imposed suspension at the time so I took his place in the team. I hit the post with a header in the first half and John Greig thumped the upright in the second half too, before, with five minutes remaining, I looped in a cross that Alec Smith headed down to George McLean to net the only goal of the game.

I started again the following midweek when we visited Annfield to face Stirling Albion. My direct opponent that night was none other than Eric Caldow. Since his leg break Eric had only featured intermittently for the first team. Davie Provan had established himself in Eric’s position so my old pal left Ibrox in the summer of 1966. However, our reunion was an unhappy one for him. We romped to an 8-0 win, with Jim Forrest scoring five times. I scored after 19 minutes and that opened the floodgates, with four goals scored in each half.

Eric may have been at right-back that night but, for me, his best position was left-back. He was a great guy and an immaculate footballer, never once being booked, and some years later the great Paco Gento of Real Madrid hailed him as his toughest opponent.

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