Published: Wednesday, 21st May, 2008 12:00
Fantastic trip say local Rangers fans
By Jamie MacDonald
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Members of the Wee County True Blues Alloa Rangers Supporters Club made sure they were noticed.
CLACKMANNANSHIRE was well represented at last Wednesday’s UEFA Cup Final between Rangers and Zenit Saint Petersburg in Manchester.
The Wee County True Blues and Alva and District Rangers Supporters Club were amongst the 100,000 supporters who flocked to the City hoping to see the Glasgow giants win their first European trophy for 36 years.
Unfortunately for fans of the Teddy Bears they couldn’t add Zenit to the list of teams they’ve knocked out of the tournament this season, going down 2-0.
The trip was well enjoyed by fans from both supporters clubs with no-one witnessing the violent clashes that have dominated the news in the past week.
Stuart Younger, from the Wee County True Blues, told the Advertiser, “It was a great trip. We went down on Tuesday and stayed over at Blackpool before heading to Manchester.
“The atmosphere was jumping in the ground and they think it was the largest amount of people who had ever been to a European match.
“It was great to be in the final as at the start you wouldn’t have believed we would have a chance of getting there – although I think we could have done a bit better on the night as we’ve beaten better teams this season.”
Fifty people travelled with the Wee County True Blues and a further 48 hit the road with the Alva and District Rangers Supporters Club.
It was a long day for the Alva and District supporters as they left at 5.30am on Wednesday and arrived home at 6.30am on Thursday.
John Talbot, from Alva and District Rangers Supporters Club, said, “It was a good time apart from the result.
“We mixed well with the Zenit fans and had a good time with them - not that I can speak Russian right enough.”
There were no complaints from John over the result as he felt the Russians were the better team on the night.
John added, “The team had punched above their weight all the way to the final and just to get there was fantastic.
“Rangers don’t have the same amount of money as the big English teams who didn’t make it as far and I think they did really well with the players available to them.”
The trouble that erupted in Manchester appears to have been sparked when a large screen, erected to show the game to fans who had travelled without tickets, broke down just before kick off.
John said, “We never saw any bother as we were at the game but it seems to have been in the town. It looks like it was caused by casuals not wearing any colours - not a soul from our bus saw any of the trouble.
“We had been at a pub near the ground beforehand and the atmosphere was great.”
Stuart Younger added, “We never saw any hassle but I think they underestimated how many supporters would be there.
“In the fanzone before the match it was packed but everyone was getting on fine.”
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