After drawing 5-5 on aggregate, Rangers were due to meet Red Star Belgrade in the play-off at Highbury and Little Boy Blue, a big boy of ten (!), was on his way to the big smoke to cheer the Teddy Bears. But this meant a couple of days off school, my memory is that the old lady wasn't too happy about it so there was a lot of negotiating - and plenty of sucking up! - to be done before common sense prevailed and I got to join the oul' man at The Brit, then up to the Wellpark to leave Greenock behind on the overmnight journey.
Nowadays, so many FFers are blase about foreign travel but 40/50 years ago there was a great mystique to European football and I certainly loved those occasions. But to actually see the Gers in Euro action away from Ibrox was unheard of, although Big Daddy Blue and his mates had been to Wolverhampton and Tottenham, in addition to the occasional English friendly and of course numerous Wembley pilgrimages with Scotland.
From time to time there would be family get-togethers and I lapped it up as I listened in to them reliving their various expeditions. One of them had the claim to fame that, having been in the Army in Germany at the time, he was at the Eintracht game in Frankfurt in 1960 although, remembering the score (we got humped 6-1!), I would've been more inclined to keep quiet about that one. But as I took it all in, I vowed that when I was old enough to be in charge of my own comings and goings, I'd follow Rangers everywhere and anywhere. And even if I say so myself, I'm pretty pleased with my attendance record over the years.
Memories of that first adventure are sketchy, with there having been so many subsequent trips to England that one game tends to overlap into another. But I recall that most of my fellow travellers had partaken of a refreshment or two so, after an initial rousing sing-song, most of them dropped off to sleep while, without any medication, I tossed and turned. While today you can just about do London in six or seven hours - depending on who is driving! - back in 1964, with no great motorway network, despite there being much less traffic on the road, it could be a long haul of up to twelve hours.
There was the inevitable snarl-up when we hit the outskirts of the city, with our bumper-to-bumper convoy of buses hardly helping things, before we slowly made our way through the early morning traffic to central London. I'm told I had a wee kip in a cafe, then I was smuggled into the corner of a west end pub when I would much rather have stood outside and savoured the goings-on amongst the crowd. All the tourist spots like Piccadilly Circus and Trafalgar Square were heaving with Bears and, as you would expect, our traditional tunes got big licks. Queersy, MickNee and Nasalwhine would have loved it!!! With the pubs closing in the afternoon, there was much milling around in the streets, Soho was taken over (what an eye-opener that was!) and, as these were the same guys who follow-followed week after week, there was a coming together of so many old familiar faces.
It seemed to me that everyone in London that day was a Rangers supporter and it was the same on the tube out to Highbury, gathering in the streets outside the stadium, then inside the ground where we took our place on the North Bank. the records state that a far from capacity crowd of 34,428 saw the game, yet my memory is of a packed terracing. And there was even that peculiarly English phenomenum, a bar inside the ground, doing a roaring trade of course.
The match itself was pretty one-sided. Rangers went ahead early and added two more, one on either side of the half-time break, before Red Star grabbed a late consolation goal. So there was much singing and dancing done at Highbury that night, with flutes, accordians and mouth-organs adding to the party atmosphere, and I remember thinking how impressive it must have looked to the locals. Could any English team command such a huge travelling support? In addition to those of us who had flocked south, there was a considerable London-Scottish presence. Indeed, Anglo-Scots from all over England had headed for Highbury. I'm sure the words of 'Wolverhampton Town' could easily be made to apply to the invasion of London for the Red Star play-off.
The homeward journey was a breeze because, in additon to the satisfaction of a good victory and progress in the European Cup, having snatched no more than a few winks of sleep in the preceding 24 hours, I went out like a light as soon as I got back to the bus. Returning to Greenock, I felt so proud as we walked through the streets. Wearing our colours, it was clear where we had been and I felt like I had joined an exclusive band of brothers, having travelled so far to see my team.
I stayed off school for the rest of the week and went back on Monday morning with a note stating that I'd been in bed with an upset stomach. Unfortunately, I was a bit too big in the mouth, bragging to my classmates about where I had been, even taking the match programme into school to show off. Nobody gave me any grief but I later discovered that Big Daddy Blue had got a cheeky letter from the Headmaster about my absence. I don't know how he responded but the clever money would be on him telling them to mind their ain feckin business.
The topic cropped up again at my Mother's funeral six years ago when, amidst much reminiscing, it was said that she 'always got her way'. I piped up that, while her wishes prevailed more often than not, Big Daddy Blue had overruled her to enable me to travel to Highbury. He just laughed and shook his head. No matter how I remember it, he maintained he was the one who didn't want me to go, Manmmy Bear was batting for me, working on the assumption that, with me in tow, the oul' fella would be more inclined to behave himself.
Whether my memory has played tricks on me for all these years or Big Daddy Blue was havering in his old age, I'm no longer sure. But it was an occasion I'll always remember and one which did much to fuel my passion for the Rangers. A year or two I was back at Highbury for a pre-season friendly and I also added Leicester, Stoke, Leeds, Newcastle, QPR and Tottenham to my ports of call. It was just a matter of time before I follow-followed to foreign fields.
I was bitten by the bug in 1964 and it will stay with me for the rest of my days. I wouldn't have it any other way.
LITTLE BOY BLUE