Scott7

George Young, Rangers and Scotland and Billy Wright, Wolves and England. They don’t make them like this any more. (The photo is ransacked from FollowFollow.

Many years ago on the old Rivals board there was a discussion about the Iron Curtain playing in the context of modern football. An old geezer who’d watched them reckoned Shaw and Young would have struggled against pace, McColl and Woodburn would have been fine and Sammy Cox would have strolled it.

Another pearl cast by the learned dh1963 on FollowFollow ”The small Ayshire town of Darvel has supplied some truly great Rangers players. Immortals from the late 19th and early 20th century John McPherson, Nicol Smith and Alec Smith all hailed from the town. And another famous son of Darvel who was destined for Rangers greatness was born there in April 1924, and he was given the name Samuel Richmond Cox.Born to John and Margaret Cox – he was given the middle name of Richmond after her maiden name – Sammy Cox was an outstanding schoolboy footballer who was good enough to be selected by Ayrshire junior side Glenafton at the tender age of 13. He was signed by Darvel Juniors in 1940, and then played for senior sides Queen’s Park, Third Lanark and Dundee while serving with the Gordon Highlanders. He served in the Gordons doubling as a physical training instructor under a Colonel McGregor. He was so proud of those associations that he would later called his third son Gordon McGregor Cox.Cox was signed for Rangers by legendary manager Bill Struth in May 1946, immediately playing his first match for the club in the 4-0 defeat of Airdrieonians in the Victory Cup on 4 May. Rangers progressed to the final, beating Celtic in the semi-final, and won the “one-off” tournament on 15 June, beating Hibs 3-1 to gain Cox, playing at right back, his first honour.Though naturally left-sided, his versatility showed the following season when he made 13 appearances for Rangers, playing in four different positions, before tying down a place in the first XI the following season when he played in every league match and gained a Scottish Cup winner’s medal in the replay victory over Morton.His form was recognised by the Scotland selectors and he made the first of his 25 appearances in the dark blue shirt in the 3-0 defeat by France on 23 May, 1948. An imperious left-back on the international stage, which he graced 25 times between 1948 and 1954, Cox was deployed more frequently as a left-half by his Ibrox club.In season 1948-49, the almost permanent switch to left-half was the making of Cox, and the Iron Curtain also came into being, with Rangers winning the first domestic treble in Scottish football history – the League Cup had only come into being in season 46-47. Cox was a vital member of the treble-winning team, his hard tackling and reading of the game proving major assets. Though no giant – he was just 5ft 8ins tall and weighed less than 11 stone – Cox had a brilliant grasp of positional play that marked him as a player ahead of his time.In that season 48-49, the League title was won by a point from Dundee, the League Cup was won against Raith Rovers and the Scottish Cup won against Clyde. He also starred for Scotland in the 3-1 defeat of England at Wembley on 9 April, 1949.The revered English winger Stanley Matthews once described Sammy Cox as the most difficult full-back he had ever faced. There could hardly have been more eloquent testimony to the prowess of the Rangers and Scotland stalwart, whose cocktail of subtle skills, acute tactical intelligence and deceptive power for a man of slight build was equalled by few defenders during the middle years of the 20th century.Cox was again ever-present when Rangers retained the League title the following season, but there followed a couple of barren seasons with Hibs and their Famous Five in the ascendancy. Cox continued to be selected for Scotland, however, and gained his last cap against England in 1954 when he was made captain of the side. He had also been selected 13 times for the Scottish League XI in its various international fixtures.By then, he fell out of favour with new manager Scot Symon and though he had won the last of his three league winner’s medals in season 52-53, and played 44 games out of 47 in 53-54, by the following season he was no longer a permanent fixture in the side and in February 1955, he played the last of his 316 games for Rangers in a Scottish Cup loss at Pittodrie. In his Rangers career, he scored 20 goals and was never booked or sent off.Cox then played a couple of seasons for East Fife, but like so many Scots of the time, he needed to travel west to find work – footballers in those days were paid little more than the average skilled worker, so Cox and his family emigrated to Canada where, having retired from full-time football, he went to work for Fischer Bearings Manufacturing in Stratford, Ontario, where he and his family made their home.He would work for the company for 35 years until his retirement.In the late 1950s he continued to play regularly in the National Soccer League for Toronto Ulster United in 1958, Toronto Sparta in 1959 and was player-coach of Stratford Fischers in 1960. He was also selected for the Ontario All-Stars against West Bromwich Albion in Toronto in May 1959, when the English tourists included no less a personage than Sir Bobby Robson in a side that beat their hosts 6-1.Cox continued to follow Rangers and was a much-loved member of the North American Rangers Supporters Association, which has created a special banner in his honour. He was also inducted into Rangers Hall of Fame in 2003, an honour he greeted with the heartfelt declaration: “Once a Bluenose, always a Bluenose!”In his later years Cox was cared for by his wife and the staff of the Spruce Lodge nursing home in Stratford, where he passed away in August 2015 at the age of 91.”

dh 1963 a very knowledgeable poster on FollowFollow writes this about Johnny Little. ”Johnny Little was born Robert John Little in Calgary, Alberta in the summer of 1930, but moved with his family to Scotland at an early age, to Millport on the Isle of Cumbrae where his parents opened a fruit and vegetable shop.Educated at Queen’s Park Secondary Schoolon the south side of Glasgow, his aptitude to sport in general and football in particular was recognised when he became a Scotland schoolboy internationalist, having earlier played rugby union at school.Signing for Queen’s Park in the summer of 1948, he quickly made his debut on August 25 of that year in a supplementary cup-tie at Hampden against Kilmarnock, lost 1-2 and a league debut quickly followed three days later at the same venue against Stirling Albion in a B Division fixture again lost by the odd goal in five.Capable of playing in either full-back position, John Little quickly established himself in the Mount Florida side and would go on to make 77 appearances for the amateur club, including 55 league whilst adding three Scottish amateur international appearances to his earlier schoolboy honours.Whilst at Hampden he could count amongst his team-mates Ronnie Simpson and Derek Grierson, who would be a future colleague at Ibrox as well as long-standing Queen’s Park servants David Letham and Bert Cromar.The full-back followed the well-worn path from Hampden to Ibrox when he turned professional in July 1951, his debut for Rangers coming in a one-off tournament, the St Mungo Cup, staged as part of the 1951 Festival of Britain. That cup-tie against Aberdeen at Pittodrie on July 14 attracted 35,000 spectators who would witness a 2-1 win for the Dons – but that score-line was reversed one month later at Ibrox in Little’s home debut before a 60,000 crowd.Johnny Little gradually established himself in the Light Blue defence, succeeding the legendary club servant and captain Jock ‘Tiger’ Shaw.A sturdily-built defender, pacy and stylish but also strong in the tackle, Little played in an era when backs were backs and defenders were defenders. His speed, energy and exuberance were a key component of the Ibrox successes during much of the 1950s, and in addition to gaining further representative honours with two appearances for the Scottish league he made his solitary full international appearance for Scotland against Sweden at Hampden in a friendly that attracted a remarkable 83,800 spectators with the Swedes emerging victorious 2-1.Excellent in the art of the sliding tackle, one game at Ibrox played in heavy snow and slush in the days before undersoil heating saw the full-back successfully execute one such manoeuvre that was described by one onlooker as similar to The Queen Elizabeth “ploughing through a stormy sea”.Johnny Little was a consistent and respected performer for Rangers for 11 years, a good club servant who played a total of 327 games in Light Blue, scoring just the one goal on March 6th 1954 in a 1-1 draw with Hamilton Accies at Douglas Park. He won two League Championship and two Scottish Cup Winners’ Medals in 1953 and 1960 against Aberdeen and Kilmarnock respectively. The 1953 final went to a replay following a 1-1 draw meaning that the full-back played in three finals in total – all watched by six-figure attendances.An ever-present in all nine games of Rangers’ run to the semi finals of the 1959-60 European Champions’ Cup, that season Little played in no fewer than 50 competitive games in all competitions but his time at Ibrox was drawing to a close with the full-back partnership of Bobby Shearer and Eric Caldow more favoured by manager Scot Symon – his final appearance in light blue being a league cup-tie at Cathkin Park on 17th August 1960 against the much-lamented Third Lanark, lost 1-2.He finally left Rangers in the summer of 1962, signing for Morton for whom he would play 14 league games before retiring.Away from the world of football John Little was a much respected PE teacher at Crookston Castle Secondary on the south-side of Glasgow, at St Columba’s in Greenock and at the Sacred Heart Secondary in Paisley.In later years he lived with his wife Anne in Largs and spent many holidays in their caravan at Ballantrae, Ayrshire, in the heart of Burns country.He was inducted into the Rangers Football Club Hall of Fame in 2014 and passed away aged 86 in January 2017” The Stuart Munro of his time? To the extent of being a tireless stalwart, yes but really a bit better just not at the Caldow level. Few were or are.

Correct. On the other hand there was a time when shilpit wee Scottish nyaffs used to run rings round blond Saxon giants. Not any more sadly. There you are, dB. Some useful new words for your already excellent English vocabulary.

Had a very good career with the Baggies but at an age like Dorrans etc where injury could finish him.

Dorrans, Macauley, Murphy. No Brunt, thanks.

Could those who are asking the Club to go to Court say what it is they want the Court to do? I would like the court to dissolve celtic and distribute its assets among the poor and ordain Lennon and Lawwell to be thrown in the Clyde. I don’t think there are legal grounds for that unfortunately unless a clever bloke like Uilleam can dream them up.

Dissolve them both and promote the Clach.

Rangers or HSV?

They won’t.

Well worth reading if you close your mind to the ghost’s journalese. The events and anecdotes are interesting. Millar, Brand and Wilson used to stay after training to work out moves which explains their prodigious scoring feats. The three of them had a private physio. They even paid for him to go up to Aberdeen so they could get their usual pre-match massage.

No. If they’re inclined to travel, it’ll be down the road to Ibrox. The north Highlands are good Rangers territory, I’ll say that much for them. Apart from Alness.

A very good idea. Could it happen? Doubt if County would want it unless they played in Dingwall and I can’t see caley going there. They could play in tartan shirts. I think an Inverness welfare/school team did that long ago. Hilton?

And a heavy price tag.

Snelders the sub ‘keeper. Iain Macdonald outside left.

Hagi might be the creative player. He’ll need a protector/enforcer. That’s what I meant by cruiserweight.

Both selections are lightweight in midfield and attack. That’s not the fault of either selector. There are no cruiserweights on the books.

Adjusted that a little bit.

I very much doubt it.

Micheal Stewart Who’s he?

I’d be happy with a 16 team league.

Horse and carriage. Rowing. Elite even then.

“Best fans in the world no doubt. You guys gave me love & some moments in my life i’ll never forget. Thankyou“ Didn’t read the boards, did he.

Don’t waste him on the wing.