Phoenix from the Flames: Archie Knox revives the spirits of the past to beat Celtic

In search of some inspiring messages, earlier this week Keith Jackson put in a call to big Goughie.

It seems that with Dave King no longer involved the former Rangers captain is badly off message. Rather than a rousing, rallying call Richard Gough called it straight admitting that Celtic are the better team and that he’ll be hiding behind the sofa when he watches Saturday clash.

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Reviving the spirit of Walter Smith and dubious remuneration processes, Archie Knox tried to pretend that the current Tribute Act can call on the glories of a club that BDO began the process of liquidating in 2012.

He told Record readers:

It was never a question of ‘can’ we win these games. It was only a matter of we ‘have’ to win them, it was as simple as that. If you went to Parkhead and you didn’t win then the whole time between then and the next Old Firm game was ruined.

We had so many good players who wouldn’t tolerate anything less. It was the same thing under Fergie at Aberdeen and at Manchester United. If you want to win titles you have to win the big games, no matter where.

That’s the situation Rangers are in right now as well. Michael Beale has done a very good job in a short space of time but this is when it comes to the crunch. They have to win at Parkhead and have to follow it up by beating Celtic in the Scottish Cup semi-final at the end of the month.

Whenever you go to these clubs, that’s just something you have to accept. OK, when we first went to Manchester United they were in a slightly different position as there was a lot of catching up to do.

And when Walter took over from Graeme Souness Rangers were already well on their way. They’d won three championships in succession and Walter then took it on to the nine. But he knew it was games like this which made the difference.

He had watched the Rangers all his days – he was a Rangers supporter – so he knew what was required. If you were going to Parkhead, or playing them at Ibrox, only one thing mattered. You had to win.

Walter found a way of doing that. I remember him going on about it and saying, ‘If we defend well we can win these games’. Because when you had people like McCoist and Hateley in your team you always knew you could score goals against anyone.

They were regular scorers against Celtic so we always felt confident going into these games. But it didn’t make you any less nervous!

Even with the players we had, you always felt the pressure leading up to it. You knew you were going into the most important game of the season.

Without the connections of Dave Murray, with HMRC watching every transaction and without tax scams and disguised remuneration schemes life is a lot more difficult for the Tribute Act to the heydays of Sir Walter, Archie, Goughie, the Goalie and Coisty.