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The 50 Greatest Rangers Games
What makes a Rangers game truly 'great? An end-to-end cup final or a perfect performance? An Old Firm demolition or a European glory night? Or is it simply the prize that determines greatness? In 2019 the listeners of Heart and Hand - The Rangers Podcast provided the answer when they voted in their droves to determine the 50 greatest games in the long history of the club. Does Pittodrie 1987 outrank Parkhead 1999? Can any match eclipse Barcelona 1972?
Martyn Ramsay gathers the fan experiences of these games, analyses the action, examines the historical context and seeks to understand why Rangers fans have voted in the way that they have, why others haven't resonated at all and what it says about how fans have cultivated the history of the most successful club in world football.
Martyn Ramsay gathers the fan experiences of these games, analyses the action, examines the historical context and seeks to understand why Rangers fans have voted in the way that they have, why others haven't resonated at all and what it says about how fans have cultivated the history of the most successful club in world football.
286 pages, Paperback
Published July 1, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 17, 2021
The 4 star rating applies only to those who might want to read this type of book. It's not one I would recommend to people unfortunate enough to follow a different football team, and definitely not those who do not love the beautiful game.
This book is better than it has any right to be. The listeners to a podcast nominate what they consider to be the greatest games the club has been involved in, and from that vote comes a top 50. One of the podders then writes a book running through the games. The publishing deal is secured because the subscriber list effectively guarantees sales. It should be dreadful. It's better than that. There are inevitable typos, it's not edited to that level of standard, and it's not a page turning, Pulitzer winning book either. But it aims high, without setting it's sights too high, and by and large hits the mark.
It's not a blow by blow account of each match. Martyn Ramsay looks at the background, sometimes what was happening in the world at that point, sometimes what made the match important. He disagrees with the choices, rails against recency bias which sees matches from this century far higher than they will be in 10 years time, bemoans the lack of matches from certain eras such as the Struth teams of the early 60s. It makes it an interesting read. Some matches are a trip down memory lane, others talk about games before my lifetime.
The preponderance of recent matches, together with the use of the word Great to set the list up are the weak points in the concept. For most clubs, a chronological run through of the greatest games would serve as a good potted history of that club. That can't apply to Rangers. The defining match in Rangers history was not a great match and so isn't included here. That was on the 2nd January 1971, when 66 people went to a football match and didn't come home. But 50 most important or defining matches would be another list entirely, though perhaps a better one.
This book is better than it has any right to be. The listeners to a podcast nominate what they consider to be the greatest games the club has been involved in, and from that vote comes a top 50. One of the podders then writes a book running through the games. The publishing deal is secured because the subscriber list effectively guarantees sales. It should be dreadful. It's better than that. There are inevitable typos, it's not edited to that level of standard, and it's not a page turning, Pulitzer winning book either. But it aims high, without setting it's sights too high, and by and large hits the mark.
It's not a blow by blow account of each match. Martyn Ramsay looks at the background, sometimes what was happening in the world at that point, sometimes what made the match important. He disagrees with the choices, rails against recency bias which sees matches from this century far higher than they will be in 10 years time, bemoans the lack of matches from certain eras such as the Struth teams of the early 60s. It makes it an interesting read. Some matches are a trip down memory lane, others talk about games before my lifetime.
The preponderance of recent matches, together with the use of the word Great to set the list up are the weak points in the concept. For most clubs, a chronological run through of the greatest games would serve as a good potted history of that club. That can't apply to Rangers. The defining match in Rangers history was not a great match and so isn't included here. That was on the 2nd January 1971, when 66 people went to a football match and didn't come home. But 50 most important or defining matches would be another list entirely, though perhaps a better one.
December 31, 2021
I’m a big fan of The Time Capsule series on the Heart & Hand network and so I was destined to enjoy this book.
The writing is superb as well as engrossing and Martyn does a fantastic job of painting vibrant pictures of each match, focussing on both the pitch action and the feeling in the terraces or living rooms at the time, with help from former players and Rangers supporters.
As I was only born at the start of the first season of 9IAR, I particularly enjoyed the historical backgrounds provided (mainly from a footballing perspective) which were playing out at the time of each of the games.
The writing is superb as well as engrossing and Martyn does a fantastic job of painting vibrant pictures of each match, focussing on both the pitch action and the feeling in the terraces or living rooms at the time, with help from former players and Rangers supporters.
As I was only born at the start of the first season of 9IAR, I particularly enjoyed the historical backgrounds provided (mainly from a footballing perspective) which were playing out at the time of each of the games.
July 29, 2020
This is a great read for the Rangers fan or those interested in football fandom and why fans respond so strongly to some games. I voted in the poll to select the 50 games and having finished reading it was at a fair few of them. Too young to have been at the #1 game and I also missed the Parma classic but glad to revisit a lot of these classics regardless of whether I was at them or not.
Martyn does well in telling the story and context of each game and really brings them to life I learned a lot, laughed a few times and had to watch quite a few goals and clips on youtube.
Martyn does well in telling the story and context of each game and really brings them to life I learned a lot, laughed a few times and had to watch quite a few goals and clips on youtube.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews