Chapter Six Ally Dawson During the last couple of years, we have on more than one occasion had good cause to refer to the ‘Rangers Family’ as fans far and wide have rallied to support their toiling club in its hour of need. But there is one former Ibrox stalwart who can lay genuine claim to having come from a bona fide Gers family. Signed as a prodigious schoolboy by Jock Wallace, Ally Dawson made his first team debut at the tender age of just 16 – in 1975 – in a pre-season tour of North America. He would go on to lift the Scottish Cup as captain of the most decorated club in the world seven years later. And the talented defender described that moment as “the high point of my career.” He said: “I had grown up a Rangers supporter and my whole family had close connections with the club. In fact, my uncle just retired at the end of 2015, at the age of 80, after giving 50 years’ service to Rangers. He worked in many different departments at the club.” The versatile defender also gave sterling service to the Rangers from 1975 to 1987, and despite suffering horrific injuries such as a fractured skull, and a dislocated and fractured jaw, the Johnstone- born defender racked-up more than 300 top-team appearances for the Light Blues. A club legend? Absolutely. Dawson played through the pain barrier many, many times for Rangers, but in his own words, said: “I was fortunate enough to play for the club I loved and had supported as a boy. It really doesn’t get much better than that.” He added: “When I was made captain of Rangers it was one of the proudest moments of my life. I had just come through an awful year of injury and was captain when we lifted the Scottish Cup in 1981 – mind you, it came at a price. “We beat a very good Dundee United side 4-1 in a replay at Hampden, when John MacDonald scored a couple, and that was my moment if nothing else. After playing in the first tie – a 0-0 draw at the national stadium – I was struggling to make it for the replay due to injury, but let’s just say I had to get some ‘special treatment,’ and it got me through that game. “Mind you, I ended up missing what was left of the season and the Home Internationals for Scotland. I was forced to withdraw from the national squad, but only because it had meant so much to me to play for Rangers in that Scottish Cup final replay. “And it was definitely worth it as walking up the stairs and lifting up the Scottish Cup at Hampden at the age of 23 was just such a phenomenal feeling. If you had asked me when I was 16 or 17 whether I would achieve something like that I would have sworn you were having a laugh. “I love the club so much and am fortunate that I’m still fit enough to be working with the youth teams, and it’s simply fantastic. Mind you, after 12 years with Rangers you’re bound to have many highlights – and I have – but leading the club to the Scottish Cup in 1981 is one of my biggest.” But exactly two decades after that crowning moment, Dawson was again making the headlines when he was inaugurated into the Rangers Hall of Fame – the 97th inductee. In doing so, he followed in the boot steps of many, many famous names. Moses McNeil, Davie Meiklejohn, John Greig, Davie Cooper and Sandy Jardine: they’re all there. Players such as Chris Woods and Terry Butcher arrived at Ibrox 11 years after Ally Dawson first signed on the dotted line, and the former Scotland international recalls the ‘Souness Revolution’ with great joy. He said: “I suppose we were all thinking the same, like what’s going to happen now that we have a new manager. To be honest, I don’t think I realised the scale of the changes that were afoot, maybe none of us did. But Graeme Souness had bags of experience and was finishing off his career abroad and I’m sure he was relishing the opportunity to take over at Ibrox as player/manager, although I think it was something he found very difficult at first. Perhaps that was why he brought Walter Smith in, as he had a lot of experience of the Scottish game. “We just didn’t know what to expect at the time. Graeme wanted to do things his way and one of the first things he introduced was training sessions up at Jordanhill. At that time we still only had the one training pitch over at the Albion, which wasn’t really sufficient. It had served its purpose and had its day but the club was growing and we needed more than one pitch to train on.” Dawson had a head start on his teammates when Graeme Souness first walked through the front door at Ibrox, as the Renfrewshire man had played alongside him for Scotland, but he doesn’t think for a moment it gave him any advantage. “I wouldn’t say it made it any easier for me,” he said. “When Graeme joined the club, he came in as manager, or head coach, however you want to put it, so that was the difference right from the start. Those of us who knew him, knew right away there needed to be a line drawn as he was now our manager. “Graeme’s arrival came at a time when I was battling back to fitness after fracturing my jaw. I had dislocated and fractured it during a game and had been out for six or seven weeks. He asked if I was fit to play and I said I was. It was the right decision to make because I played the last few games of the season and I was absolutely fine. In fact, I think he made me captain till the end of the season, which was certainly fine by me. “I think the main difference is that as a player you have to make certain decisions throughout your career, mostly just for yourself, but as a manager, as I later found out, these decisions are different, and far more difficult. And they come with more consequences.” Dawson added: “Naturally, Graeme wanted to do things his own way at Rangers, but as players we were all hoping to make a good impression on the new man. Personally I was quite fortunate that even though I was injured, the nature of the injury hadn’t prevented me from doing light work. The only thing I was losing at that time was a bit of match fitness. I was still training up to a point. There was no contact in training but it definitely helped me. It wasn’t as if I was off limits and still had weeks ahead of me before I could play again, so that definitely worked in my favour and gave me a boost. “My biggest problem at that time, and with the benefit of hindsight, was that I took a holiday after the season had finished. If I had the decision to make again I would definitely have trained throughout the close season so I was ready to hit the ground running for pre-season. Even though you tell yourself you will do a wee bit to help, it’s never enough. Ideally, I should have taken a two- week break after the last game and then got straight back down to working on my fitness, but I didn’t. Instead, we went shopping etc, which just didn’t do my body any good whatsoever. “So my problem was I didn’t get the new season off to a flying start and Stuart Munro came in and did very well. During that period, Stuart saw off some more than decent players and fully deserved his place in the team. “For me, though, I was a wee bit behind and it was my own fault. That annoyed me because it was a really important season for everyone at the club. I was always a traditionally slow starter to a season anyway, and told myself I would catch-up, but by that time it was too late as far as I was concerned or, more importantly, as far as Graeme was concerned. He had his eye on everyone at that point to see how they were doing, so that’s a big regret of mine.” The following season, 1986/87, Dawson’s appearances in the first team were restricted to half-a- dozen in the Premier League, one in Europe and three in the Scottish League Cup – although one of those came in the final against Celtic, a 2-1 success which brought a fourth winners’ medal in that competition. 75,000 fans saw goals by Ian Durrant and Davie Cooper give Rangers the trophy, and although the final was played in October, 1986, it was the last big match the Rangers stalwart would play in for his boyhood heroes. He explained: “The following close season, when I did leave Ibrox, I went over to Switzerland to see Robert Prytz. He was at Young Boys Berne at the time and even though I was supposed to be on a break, I ended up training with them. I was also trying to get sorted out at a club but they were in the middle of their season so I thought I should get myself fit.