Time to turn up the noise levels
McAllister wants Ibrox to roar like it did when Leeds came to town...
GARY McAllisteR’s brilliance briefly brought silence, but it is the noise he remembers. A reverberation so intense that it seemed to threaten both eardrums and the foundations of the stadium. the sound of ibrox on a great european evening.
McAllister was centre stage on one of the most famous of them all. in October 1992, his gloriously struck goal gave leeds United an early advantage in an epic Battle of Britain.
it did not last long. swept forward by a tsunami of noise from the stands, Rangers fought back to record a 2-1 first-leg victory they would later replicate at elland Road. A place in the Champions league group stage was their reward.
some 26 years on, McAllister will be in the ibrox technical area as steven Gerrard’s assistant when a new era opens with a europa league first qualifying round tie against FK shkupi next month.
the Macedonian side — fourth in their domestic league last season — are far removed from the great names to have graced Govan in the past. McAllister, though, knows this is the road Rangers must travel.
in dire need of restoring some continental credibility after the debacle against Progres Niederkorn, success would be a first step towards bringing back those decibel-defying evenings of old.
‘that night with leeds is one i’ll never forget,’ smiled McAllister, relaxing in between training sessions at the Rangers pre-season camp in Andalusia.
‘You probably think that’s because i scored a good goal, but no, it was the moment the referee went to start the game. i have never heard noise like it.
‘it was agreed that there would be no away fans and, to this day, i can remember looking at Gordon strachan, David Batty and Gary speed on the left. the noise that was generated just before that game started was unbelievable. And that’s what we want to recreate at ibrox.
‘You are trying to build something when you are starting. You’re building a dressing room.
‘You are trying to win over the fans. i have played at clubs of similar size to Rangers with the same expectation levels.
‘When you do start to get a few results and can see a bit of performance, you start to gain a wee bit of confidence. At clubs like the ones i played for, and this club, it snowballs quite quickly. if you get everyone together, it can help. that’s what we want to do.’
success against shkupi would see Gerrard’s side face either Moldovan outfit Petrocub or Osijek, the Croatian team who beat PsV eindhoven home and away to reach the play-off round last term. Failure would provide an unwelcome flashback to the dismay endured in luxembourg 11 months ago.
that 2-0 defeat to Progres was the worst result in Rangers’ european history and effectively holed Pedro Caixinha’s tenure below the waterline a month before the domestic season had even started. the image of Caixinha standing in a bush outside the stadium encapsulated the chaos brought by a truly disastrous appointment.
Gerrard’s arrival has brought renewed optimism. there is a sense of direction and leadership being restored to the club. McAllister hopes that can now be transferred into some vital momentum.
‘i’m very much aware of what happened last season,’ said the 53-year-old former scotland captain.
‘i know loads of Rangers fans and that hurt. it would also have hurt the players.
‘We are a year on. it is a new regime and a chance to put things right. We want to get a good run and get moving in this competition. We want to get back a big bit of pride and try to stamp Rangers’ status again. it is a process of getting the name back out there.
‘i had no idea who Progres Niederkorn were. it was a team i had never heard of. that would have been tough to take and that got that regime off to a bad start.
‘We want to start fast and getting a result is the best way of doing that.’
Gerrard and McAllister believe they are laying the necessary foundations in spain. the fitness sessions put on have been of a leg-wearying intensity. the heat being endured is also suitable preparation for the environment likely to be encountered in Macedonia.
‘We are acclimatised already and, while the heat can be a problem, being in spain for ten days should stand us in good stead,’ argued McAllister.
‘i think because it’s a new group of staff, the earlier start has helped us. it’s a case of the earlier the better.
‘We have given ourselves four weeks from the start of pre-season to the first game on July 12. there is a sense of excitement as we now know who our first game will be against.
‘if you could take a tablet at this time of the season to get fit, it would be great. But you have to put the hard yards in, the running, the intensity. We have been back a week and i have been impressed by the outstanding application.’
While Rangers should be in better physical shape, supporters will still harbour doubts over whether members of the squad involved in last season’s disappointments have the necessary mental fortitude.
‘We are here to help them cope with that,’ insisted McAllister. ‘But that develops from having a plan, a shape and something to fall back on when things don’t go so well.
‘Primarily, you just want to get winning and try to get something going. the thing that we are trying to impress on the players is the importance of this camp moving forward.
‘the process is there. You know what results bring. they bring a belief in what we are doing.
‘it works both ways. if you can get them to believe in this method, it works for everybody.’
“The atmosphere that night was just unbelievable. I have never heard anything like it”