Rangers Toast To The Queen

As has been tradition at Ibrox for decades, the first home game after New Year, sees the opponents directors invited into the Blue Room to toast Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II from The Loving Cup. This year Elgin City's directors where invited before the SFL3 tie, to join Chairman Malcolm Murray, CEO Charles Green and manager Ally McCoist in the club's toast.

Through all the clubs, owners, chairmen and managers. It's been a yearly event taken place within Ibrox Stadium to toast the reigning monarch, since Bill Struth took his Rangers side to play in a charity match against Stoke City for the Holditch Colliery Disaster, in which a lot of miners lost their lives. The Loving Cup was presented to all 22 teams in the English First Division to commemorate the coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in May 1937. Stoke's President Sir Francis Joseph, handed Rangers the piece of memorabilia as a thank you for attending the match which finished 0-0 and raised a lot of money for the families effected.

The game itself was a slightly strange affair. Rangers took an early lead through youngster Lewis MacLeod as he kept his composure to slide past two defenders, before slotting the ball past Elgin's stretched goalkeeper. The Ibrox side dominated possession for lengthy periods and Elgin failed to create much. Midway into the first half, Paul Harkins, slid straight through the back of Ian Black, resulting in a straight red for the Elgin midfielder.

The second half began pretty much as the first ended, Rangers had all the possession and creating all the chances. But couldn't put the game to bed. Elgin frustrated the home side and with 4 minutes left got their reward. They managed to get a corner and as it was floated in, it seemed Gers goalkeeper Alexander had a routine save, but he fumbled at the catch and some how managed to spin and knock the ball into his own net giving Elgin and unlikley equalisier. The Light Blues threw everything at the former Highland League side but to no avail and the game finished 1-1 endning Rangers' 11 wins in a row.

New Year, Same Rangers.

11 in a row. That's the amount of wins Rangers are in SFL 3 and they continued that streak at Galabank against Annan Athletic on Wednesday. Rangers struggled to find any away form in the opening matches of the season and Annan away was a trickier affair the first time back in September 2012. Rangers failed to score in that match and would lose debutant David Templeton for 3 months with an ankle ligament injury. 2nd January 2013 was a very different game though. The team have settled well into Scotland's fourth tier over the past few months which has seen them take a lead of 18 points in the division already.


The players this season seem to have been struggling on the smaller astro grass surfaces, but this is another obstacle of the league they have overcome. It was a make shift squad to say the least for this tie. Club Captain Lee McCulloch was missing with an ankle injury and ever present Lewis McLeod was also missing with a viral infection that seemed to have hit most clubs across the UK. This gave starts to fringe youngsters, Robbie Crawford and Darren Cole. It was Cole's first start of the season, although Crawford had made a couple of substitute appearances, weighing in with a couple of goals.


The game started as expected, with Rangers dominating possession. Albeit with out many chances. On the 25th minute though, good work from Fran Sandaza in the box found David Templeton out left. A bit of good luck from the resulting cross, saw it float over the Annan keeper and into the back of the net to send the Light Blues 1 up. Amazingly though 9 minutes later Annan found themselves level as Ally Love, scored the almost identical goal to Templetons opener. A wayward cross which found the inside of the net over the Scrambling Alexander. This would be the score as the teams went in at half time.


Both teams kicked off the second half as they where. Same as the first half Rangers dominated possession and chances but couldn't find the net. On 62 minutes though, a good cross from Templeton just missed Ian Black, but fell nicely for youngster Robbie Crawford who clinically found the corner across Annan Keeper Mitchells goal, to make it 2-1 Rangers. Another nice finish from Crawford who had been composed in front of goal in his previous appearances. With 10 minuted left, Templeton took down a Kyle Hutton pass and with a nice turn, let fly at the Annan goal, the ball took a wicked deflection from an Annan defender and completely wrong footed keeper Mitchell who could only watch as the ball flew into his net.


The match finished 3-1, another comfortable win for Gers and their 11th in a row in SFL3. With nearest promotion rivals Elgin City losing 2-0 to Peterhead in the afternoon fixtures. This leaves Rangers a massive 18 points clear in the title race, and looking certain for the league win.