History of Rangers F.C. - White Takes Charge

White Takes Charge

David White was installed as Rangers' fourth manager on 1 November 1967. He had initially come to Rangers as assistant to manager Symon as part of a grooming process, giving him time to learn the ropes and take over when he was ready. However, it didn't turn out that way and the responsibility came too early. White was on his own and in charge after just five months at the club and aged just 34-years-old.

When White took up the reins at Rangers, the team had failed to win the league championship in three seasons, the longest title drought in 50 years. He also happened to be up against one of the greatest ever Celtic managers, in Jock Stein, and teams, the 1967 European Cup Final side. White started incredibly well and went on to win 19 of his first 20 league matches in charge, amassing 39 out of a possible 40 points. The only blemish being a 2–2 draw at Celtic Park on 2 January, which happened to be the sides third game in only four days.

The Scottish Cup gave White his first defeat as Rangers manager. A third round replay against Hearts on 13 March looked to be heading for extra time, when in the 87th minute, Donald Ford struck the winner for Hearts. Rangers were out the Cup. Incredibly, this was White's only loss in his first 30 domestic games in charge. A couple of draws in April, and White's first league defeat in the final minute of the final game of the season, 3–2 at home to Aberdeen, cost Rangers the title by two points. Despite accumulating the highest percentage of points won by any Rangers side since Bill Struth's first season and collecting 61 points, which would have won the title in 11 of the past 12 seasons, Rangers were beaten by Celtic. Their Old Firm rivals amassed 63 points and following the Ne'erday derby draw gone on to win all of their remaining league fixtures.

In the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup campaign that season Rangers reached the quarter-finals, meeting Leeds United in March 1968. After a 0–0 draw at Ibrox, two goals in six minutes at Elland Road in the second leg were enough to see Leeds progress 2–0 aggregate. Leeds United went on to win the Fairs Cup.

The 1968–69 season was to be White's one and only full season in charge at the club. He made two major signings at the start of the season. The first was when he broke the Scottish transfer record and outbid the English Champions Everton to buy Colin Stein from Hibernian for £100,000. Secondly he paid St. Johnstone £50,000 for Alex MacDonald. The league campaign till the end of November was inconsistent, 4 draws and 3 defeats from 13 matches, although the side did win the first Old Firm match 4–2 at Celtic Park. Rangers went on a run from December until April where they lost only once in all competitions, 3–2 away to Airdrieonians in the league.

The seemed to be unstoppable, an example being one week in the middle of March (15th–22nd), when Rangers beat Clyde 6–0 at Ibrox in the league on the Saturday, with Stein scoring hat-trick before being sent-off, four days later the side beat Athletic Bilbao 4–1 at home in the Fairs Cup then followed this three days later by hammering Aberdeen 6–1 in the Scottish Cup semi-final. Stein's disciplinary record caught up with him and he was suspended from the end of March until the end of the season. Without his goals the team dropped six points from the final six league games and conceded the title to Celtic by five points.

The route to the 1969 Scottish Cup Final saw Rangers dispose of Hibernian, Hearts and Airdrieonians before meeting Aberdeen in the semi-final. In the final, with Stein suspended, White opted to play Alex Ferguson rather than Sandy Jardine, purely because of the aerial threat of Billy McNeill at corners. Ferguson was blamed for a goal that Rangers conceded only two minutes into the match in which he was designated to mark goalscorer McNeill. Two horrendous mistakes from Örjan Persson and Norrie Martin minutes before the interval, were both seized upon by the 20-year-old George Connolly, resulted in two goals to give Celtic a 3–0 lead at half-time. Rangers lost the game 0–4 and Ferguson was subsequently forced to play for the club's junior side.

The Fairs Cup proved fertile once again. Rangers went all the way to the semi-finals, defeating FK Vojvodina (2–1 on aggregate), Dundalk (9–1 on aggregate), DWS Amsterdam (4–1 on aggregate), Bilbao (4–3 on aggregate) before losing 0–2 to Newcastle United on aggregate. The tie was basically lost at Ibrox as Rangers were held to a 0–0 draw, despite numerous chances and yet another missed penalty from Andy Penman. Newcastle United went on to win the trophy.