Herd wrote:I remember the Glasgow Rangers match's only for the devastation the Jocks brought to the neighborhood , they arrived overnight in hordes, pissing in peoples gardens sleeping rough some broke into the ground I was told and slept in the stands .
I lived in Drayton Park at the time when my my sister and I went to Highbury fields to play on the swings we were confronted with masses of drunken people draped in red white n blue and tartan with iffy mullet Rod Stewart haircuts who it would appear didn't speak a word of English,and this at 9am .
We were terrified and ran home and wern't allowed out the rest of the weekend .
I was told that they went into every crevice of the ground and had a royal battle with Jon Hoys boys , they kept throwing bottles everywhere in the north Bank and many were injured .
As a result Arsenal who where very friendly with Rangers Directors and in fact Rangers had a small share holding ,called the matches off at Highbury which had been annual events with the venues alternating. Rangers went on to cause havoc at other grounds too in the 60's n 70's .
On a positive note the Rangers link is why Arsenal were the ONLY club in Division 1 NOT to have fences .
Hillwood was at Ibrox in 66 and saw the crush and formed the opinion that in the case of emergencies the pitch is the safest place to be ............of course he was very right .
I think the last one was in 1967/8 pre-season so I was 9 at the time !
After that we have played them in Scotland a few times i one of them I went to early 80's was remarkable for one of the very few appearances in an Arsenal shirt of a striker who cost us a million quid ..........Clive Allen !
Just had a look mate you are right it was 67/68 but it was the only one at highbury
We played them in scotland in 66/67 and 68/69 but it would appear that game at highbury was a bridge too far for Anglo scottish games at in london
Alex ferguson was in the rangers side
We won 3-0 sammels scored twice and a chap named George Johnson got the other but this was 3 years before I started going so never had even heard of Johnson
The reports of bottle throwing and rangers taking the north bank seems to have galvanised arsenal fans into protecting the north bank in the future
Clive Allen did play 3 pre season friendlys for us
You must have been a rare sight at an away arsenal pre season friendly in those days
They barely made a footnote in the paper
Hard to believe they are viewed as make or break now
I did go up to Glasgow for the 2 friendlys at the beginning of the 03/04 season as I have an uncle living up there now a draw with celtic on the Saturday friendly atmosphere a win v rangers on the Tuesday night which was much more edgy and threatening
We had a decent following at both
