Billy Mackay (1977 to 1985)

Season 1977/78 was a momentous one for Rangers as we secured our second domestic treble in just 3 years.

Following on from the disappointment of finishing the previous campaign empty handed, manager Jock Wallace began to restructure the side with ‘flair’ players Davie Cooper and Bobby Russell being acquired during the summer break.

Both Cooper and Russell (scorer of Rangers goal) would make their competitive debuts in the opening match of the season as Rangers crashed 3-1 at Pittodrie on August 13th 1977. Also appearing for the first time that day was Glenrothes youngster Billy Mackay, still only 16 years of age.

Billy was an exciting young winger who possessed an explosive turn of pace and fierce shot. Four days on from that loss to Aberdeen, Billy would drop to the bench as Tommy McLean came back into the side for the European visit of Young Boys of Berne but he did make a substitute appearance in the 1-0 victory. The league challenge was not starting well with a home loss to Hibernian making it two defeats in two. McLean continued in place of Billy and latest signing Gordon Smith featured in this game for the first time. Incredibly, there was a small protest at full time as the disgruntled Gers support made their feelings clear towards the management. Nine months later there would be no such dissent!

The league cup campaign had begun a little more smoothly and Billy would feature in the 3-1 win over St.Johnstone at Ibrox despite having trailed 1-0. However, with Smith, Russell and Cooper now starting to make the new look Gers side ‘tick’, and with fellow winger McLean still a top performer, Billy would not see any more game time that season. With all three major honours returning to Ibrox by the start of May it would have been hard for Billy to have too much cause for complaint.

Frustratingly for Mackay, it would be a sign of things to come over the coming years although clearly the emergence of Davie Cooper as one of the all time greats made it extremely difficult for Billy to cement a place in the starting eleven. There were several substitute appearances over the next couple of seasons and a highlight for Billy were his first goals for the Club when he started the League Cup tie against Clyde in August 1979 and netted a double in a 4-0 win (Rangers progressed 6-1 on aggregate).

His first league goal came in February 1982 when Morton were defeated 3-0 at Ibrox with the majority of his appearances continuing to be from the bench. Billy also found the net in the 10-0 rout of Valetta at Ibrox in September 1983 as Rangers progressed 18-0 on aggregate in the European Cup Winners Cup. It would be his last goal for the Club.

A persistent knee problem cruelly forced Mackay to retire during season 1984/85 and Rangers awarded Billy a Testimonial match. New Zealand were the visitors to Ibrox just 4 days after his 24th Birthday as Billy was forced to look towards a career outside of football.

He did make an attempted comeback with Hearts a couple of years later but this proved to be unsuccessful and Billy managed just a handful of games. With his professional days over, he became involved with Blairgowrie Juniors in 1987 where he remained for the next 25 years plus.

In all, Mackay proudly wore the blue shirt on 36 occasions scoring 4 times in the process.

by Rick Plews