Youth Cup 1994 And 1995

After a bit of thought I’ve decided the SFA Youth Cup could be a good topic for a post or two on the blog. In recent years there has been plenty of coverage of these finals including live broadcasts. That wasn’t the case in the early days and even basic information is hard to come by. So this is a wee look at Rangers first two Youth Cup winning sides in back to back years of 1994 and 1995

The SFA Youth Cup started in 1983/84 season but it took Rangers until 1993/94 season before recording a win. Youth football was very different back in the early days and a youth cup tie would provide a rare sight of a Rangers youth team. I remember being at Ibrox watching us lose to Queens Park and Clydebank in early rounds, in the case of the Clydebank game I remember their goalkeeper was Colin Scott who I think was about 15 at the time and on loan from Rangers !!

Airdie 3 Rangers 5

The final took place at Broomfield on 27th April 1994 and I remember it well. Rangers progress to the final saw them over come Raith Rovers at Starks Park and goals from Neil Caldwell, Kevin Fotheringham, Craig Moore and Charlie Miller secured a 4-1 win. Another away tie followed with a short trip to Firhill, a shutout and goals from Scott McCulloch and Stuart Ayton saw Rangers through.

The next round saw another 2-0 away win this time at Meadow Park the home of Threave Rovers, the goals coming from Brian McGinty and Paul McKnight. This took Rangers to the quarter final stage and a comfortable 4-0 home win over St.Mirren. Kevin Foteringham, a Lee Dair double, one being from the penalty spot and Brian McGinty were the scorers. Rangers reached the final with a home draw and a 3-2 win over Celtic at Ibrox thanks to a Charlie Miller double and a Greg Shields strike.

Details of the Airdrie team are hard to come by but a name that sticks in my mind is Gordon Connolly, mainly because he had been a Rangers ‘S’ form. I’m sure he was part of the Airdrie team that raced to a three goal lead with Kevin Fotheringham reducing the deficit just before the break. Charlie Miller talks about the game in his autobiography “The Proper Charlie”, in particular the appearance of Walter Smith in the dressing room at half-time and the team getting Walter’s version of the “hairdryer treatment”.

Rangers turned the game around after the break with a further three Kevin Fotheringham goals and a Charlie Miller single. For me the player that changed the game was half-time substitute Steven Boyack who was outstanding.

The Rangers team was as follows:-

Back Row:- Craig Moore, Scott Wilson, Iain Nicolson. Front Row:- Greg Shields, Neil Caldwell, Michael Rae, Kevin Fotheringham, Stuart Ayton, Charlie Miller, Brian McGinty, Donnie Chisholm, Steven Boyack. Roddy Kerr is not in the picture.

 

 

Michael Rae:- Highlander Michael never made a first team appearance at Rangers and on leaving the club played for a variety of Highland League Clubs including Brora Rangers, Forres Mechanics, Nairn County and Fort William.

Greg Shields:- A product of Gairdoch United, Greg made a total of eleven appearances for Rangers, including Champions League ties against Ajax and AJ Auxerre. He was transferred to Dunfermline Athletic in 1997 and after seventy plus appearances he moved to Charlton Athletic for around £600,000. Injury hampered his time at the London club but he peaked with four Premier League appearances in 2000/01 season. A spell at Kilmarnock was followed by a return to Dunfermline to take his appearance total for the club to over 200.  The USA was calling and he spent four years playing for Carolina RailHawks with a short loan spell at Partick Thistle in the middle. He then moved into coaching and brought his U14/15 Capital Area RailHawks to Rangers training ground in March 2015, Rangers winning 4-0. In January 2019 he returned to Scotland to take up a first team coaching position at Dunfermline.

Roddy Kerr:- Roddy was at Rangers with his brother Ross, I think they were twins but neither progressed after leaving Rangers. Although East Stirling and Stirling Albion come to mind both left senior football early.

Craig Moore:- Aussie Craig needs no introduction to most Rangers fans becoming a first team regular winning 5 League Titles, 4 Scottish Cups and 3 League Cups. His Rangers career was split with a season at Crystal Palace, he also had two seasons in the Premiership with Newcastle United. Before playing in Germany (Broussia Munchengladbach), Australia (Brisbane Roar) and Greece (Kavala). During his career he gained 53 caps for Australia scoring in friendlies against Hungary and France and a goal at the 2006 World Cup in Australia’s 2-2 draw with Croatia. 

Scott Wilson:- Scott never quite made a first team place at Rangers his own but he did make fifty plus appearances including three in the UEFA Champions League, starting against Ajax, and from the bench against Grasshoppers and AJ Auxerre. Following a brief loan spell at Portsmouth he joined Dunfermline Athletic and went on to play well over 200 games for the fife club. He also represented Scotland six times at Under 21 level.

Iain Nicolson:- Never made a breakthrough at Ibrox but played over 250 senior games at Partick Thistle, St.Mirren, Ayr United and Alloa Athletic. He then dropped in the Juniors playing for Bathgate Thistle and Renfrew. Iain suffered a stroke in April 2015 but returned to the pitch eight months later in a friendly for Renfrew FC against Cumnock.

Brian McGinty:- Made his first team debut in January 1995 away to Partick Thistle but his only other top team games came the following season in away games at Hearts and Hibernian. On leaving Rangers he had a decent couple of season at Hull City, in an injury hit six years at St.Mirren he still managed to make close to 140 appearances. He also played for Scarborough, Airdrie, Portadown and Dumbarton. Having spent 2000/01 in the junior ranks at Cumnock, on leaving St.Mirren he returned to Junior Football playing for Irvine Meadow, Pollok and Bellshill Athletic. When I decided to take in a random pre-season game this season to watch Ashfield play Irvine Meadow, Brian was in the dugout as Irvine Meadow’s manager.

Neil Caldwell:- Played in midfield but was more known as a full back, he made his only top team appearance against Partick Thistle at Ibrox in May 1995. On leaving Rangers he had a short spell at Dundee United making five appearances and scoring in a Challenge Cup tie against Cowdenbeath. He briefly dropped in to the juniors with spells at Petershill and Rutherglen Glencairn before retiring from the game.

Donnie Chisholm:- Perhaps a surprise starter in the final as his only appearance in previous rounds was as a sub in the semi-final. Never progressed at Rangers but if memory serves me right I think Bishopbriggs boy Donnie played junior locally maybe with Petershill or Rossvale.

Charlie Miller:- Four League titles, a League Cup win, a Norwegian Cup win, Scottish PFA Young Player of the Year, A-League Foreign Player of the Year. Yet a common response when you mention Charlie Miller is “what might have been”. That really is a testament to his natural talent. He made close to 100 Rangers appearances and after a brief loan spell at Leicester City, he left Rangers to join Watford for £450,000, he was only 23. Following Watford he had a relatively stable period playing regularly at Dundee United, SK Brann in Norway and Lierse in Belgium. His next adventure was to Australia and spells with Brisbane Roar and Gold Coast United. He terminated his career back in Scotland with a handful of games for Clyde. Charlie gained ONE cap for Scotland, a sad statistic that a player of such talent never progressed beyond that game against Poland in 2001.

Kevin Fotheringham:- Never quite made the Rangers top team but had a career in the lower leagues, playing for eleven different clubs and over 350 games. Most notably at Raith Rovers, Brechin City and East Fife, he also had a brief spell in Iceland with UMF Víkingur Ólafsvík. Then it was back to the Juniors and he is now manager at Dundonald Bluebell with a former Rangers youth team mate Lee Dair as his assistant.

Steven Boyack:- A surprise omission from the starting lineup, but a half-time sub and in my opinion he really was the catalyst for the second half turn around. A player that I thought had a real chance but only made one substitute appearance, away to Hibernian in October 1996 a game Rangers lost 2-1. He moved to Dundee in February 1999 for a fee of  £125,000, after playing around fifty games for the Dens Park club, he was transferred to Hearts in January 2001.  The highlight of his time at Tynecastle would be appearing in their UEFA Cup home win FK Zeljeznicar Sarajevo. His career then started to wane and limited appearances at Livingston, Boston United, Blackpool and Stirling Albion saw him drop into the juniors. Last saw him play when he made an appearance in his brother John’s testimonial when Rangers provided the opposition at Shotts Bon Accord in July 2011.

Stuart Ayton:- Stuart actually made his only top flight appearance in the same game that Neil Caldwell made his. Rangers v Partick Thistle on 13th May 1995, but in Stuart’s case he was in Thistle colours. Released by Rangers he signed on at Firhill at the start of that season, unfortunately that was his only appearance and he joined the junior ranks with Rutherglen Glencairn where he spent seven seasons.

 

Rangers 2 St.Johnstone 0

This final was played at Hampden on 18th April 1995, in contrast to the previous year’s final, with Rangers winning comfortably and St.Johnstone pretty much on the back foot, the goals being scored by Brian McGinty and Paul McShane. The nucleus of the side had played in the previous year’s final, so I will focus on those that didn’t.

Rangers route to the final started with an away tie at Berwick Rangers and goals from Paul McShane and Steven Boyack without reply meant progress to a home tie with Brechin City. The game was played at Prestonfield the home of Linlithgow Rose, another shutout, a Lee Dair double and single strikes from Barry Ferguson and Paul McShane setup a quarter final home tie against Dundee United.

In the game at Ibrox Rangers did lose a goal but hit five in reply, the scorers being two from Paul McShane, Barry Ferguson, Lee Dair and Brian McGinty. The Semi-Final saw Rangers back on the road with a trip to Pittodrie, goals from Lee Dair, Steven Boyack and Barry Ferguson secured their final spot at Hampden.

Rangers Lineup for the final was :- Michael Rae, Greg Shields, Roddy Kerr, Scott Wilson Andy Galloway, Iain Nicolson, Brian McGinty, Barry Ferguson, Paul McKnight, Paul McShane, Steven Boyack.

Sub:- Lee Dair

Andy Galloway:- Centre back Andy never got close to the first team at Rangers, but he did make six appearances for Raith Rovers in 1998. I don’t know what happened to him after that.

Andy Galloway on the right, with Steven Boyack

Barry Ferguson:- There is little point in trying to describe a club legend in a paragraph, so I won’t even try. The first time I saw Barry play was at a young age in a final at Hannah Park, Shotts for Rangers SABC. He was by far the smallest player on the pitch but you see he could play. It took a while for him to develop physically and was over looked for Scotland youth squads, but as they say the rest is history.

Paul McKnight:- Former Northern Ireland Under 21 international made one substitute appearance for Rangers. In that same Rangers v Partick Thistle game that featured Neil Caldwell and Stuart Ayton. A product of Belfast’s St.Andrews Boys Club Paul was a regular visitor to Rangers and Manchester United before signing for Rangers at 16. A serious hip injury halted his progress and he joined St.Mirren in 2000. He made over twenty appearances in an injury hit two years in Paisley and left for Linfield in 2002. He played in about half the games that season but briefly returned to St.Mirren the following season, further injury problems restricted him to three appearances and he went back to Northern Ireland  to Glenavon. After over fifty games the pain became too much and retired from football.

Paul McKinight

Paul McShane:- Highly rated as a youngster never quite made Rangers first team and on leaving Rangers made a career in Icelandic football. Playing for nine clubs before retiring at the age of 41. Career highlights would be European ties against Czech side Sigma Olomouc and FC Karnten of Austria. Paul son Hilmar has appeared as a trialist in Rangers youth teams on a couple of occasions.

Paul McShane playing for Fram in Iceland

Lee Dair:- Nephew of Jim Baxter, Lee never made a first team appearance at Rangers and left for Raith Rovers just missing his brother who had been transferred to Millwall. Spells at Partick Thistle, East Fife and Cowdenbeath followed but by 2003 he was carving a career out in Junior football. Playing for five different clubs and as mentioned above is now assistant manager to youth team mate Kevin Fotheringham at Dundonald Bluebell.

Lee Dair at Cwdenbeath