NOBODY in Scottish football, not even their most wildly optimistic supporter, is giving Rangers a prayer of enjoying a successful 2024/25 campaign at the present moment in time.
Their summer recruitment drive has been, one or two exceptions aside, fairly underwhelming and their early-season form both at home and abroad has not been entirely convincing either.
On top of that, the fact they are having to play their home matches at Hampden and not at Ibrox due to delays to the redevelopment work on the Copland Stand is far from ideal.
But Marvin Andrews has seen the Glasgow club’s prospects of lifting silverware written off by all and sundry – including by their own players – before and knows from personal experience that things do not always work out entirely as expected.
Andrews, who has just written his autobiography, Believer in Blue: Football, My Life, My Faith, in conjunction with official Rangers historian David Mason, is convinced they can prove the doubters wrong once again come May and has urged everyone connected with the Govan outfit to “keep believing”.
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That was the larger-than-life Trinidadian centre half’s mantra towards the end of the 2004/05 season, his first at Ibrox, when it appeared to onlookers that they had gifted Celtic, who had gone five points clear with four games remaining, the league title.
The devoutly religious player had refused to undergo an operation on a cruciate ligament injury earlier that term because his pastor at the Zion Praise Centre in Kirkcaldy had told him that God would heal him and was playing without insurance at the time.
It was a bizarre scenario and then some. But, sure enough, Andrews and his team mates finished top. They beat Hibernian 1-0 at Easter Road and their city rivals lost 2-1 to Motherwell through at Fir Park on a final afternoon of unprecedented drama which has since become known as “Helicopter Sunday”.
“But when I came back as a result of my belief in God and my prayer, I thought to myself, ‘If God can do this for me, what else can he do?’ I thought it was 100 per cent possible for us to win the league. That is why I came up with that phrase ‘keep believing until the end’.
“It came down to the point where the helicopter actually started heading towards Fir Park. Suddenly, everything changed. We couldn’t affect anything at Fir Park. All we could do was win our game.
“That is where God comes in. A miracle can happen if you believe in God, if you trust in God, if you put your faith in God. In a nutshell, that is what happened.”
Andrews continued: “In life, we don’t get judged on how we start. Some of us had the worst start in life. But the ending was beautiful.
“At the moment, it is looking horrible at Rangers. Things are not settled, there is a problem with the stadium, it is looking messy. But it is still the beginning, there are another nine and a half months to go before the conclusion of the season. It is all about how you finish.
“Helicopter Sunday is the perfect example of that. Rangers had a turbulent season, we were up, we were down, we were ahead, we were behind. It came down to the last minute. And then . . . bam! We end up winning it.”
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Andrews only spent two seasons at Rangers, but he is, due to the considerable impact he made on and off the park in the time he was there and the momentous league win he was an integral part of, still remembered fondly by their legions of supporters to this day.
He is hopeful that fans can still recall how their heroes came from behind to achieve an improbable triumph and will remain firmly behind manager Philippe Clement and his charges despite the difficulties they are currently experiencing.
“The reaction I get from supporters still amazes me,” he said. “People say to me, ‘Marv, how long did you play at Rangers’. I tell them, ‘Mate, I only played there for two years’. The way I am treated at the club, you would think I have played there for 10 years. I give thanks to God that he blessed me and allowed me to be part of such a great club.
“Any time the club is going through a difficult time, fans will go on social media and post, ‘As a wise man once said, keep believing’. No matter how bad things seem, at the back of their heads fans will say, ‘Remember big Marv!’”
Believer in Blue is an enjoyable account of Andrews’ remarkable life and playing days. He recounts growing up in San Juan outside Port of Spain in Trinidad, his move to Scotland to join Raith Rovers, the League Cup with Livingston, his eventful spell at Rangers and his 101 cap international career. He also discusses his strong faith in depth. It is a fascinating tome.
He is convinced that Rangers paid the price for failing to show gratitude to God for Helicopter Sunday that term.
“That was part of it,” he said. “It wasn’t the full reason because as a team we didn’t perform as we should and could have. That season we didn’t even finish second. But, yes, that had a part to play in it.
“We didn’t really acknowledge the miracle that happened the year before. There is nothing that anybody could have done to affect the game at Fir Park. Only God alone could have intervened to allow something miraculous to happen and for us to win the league. God had to be involved at some point because only God performs miracles.
“I was the only one who came out to recognise what he had done for us in giving us the championship. If the people at Ibrox had done the same, I believe that no one could have stopped us the following year.”
Celtic are being widely tipped to encounter little resistance from Rangers in the William Hill Premiership this season – but Marvin Andrews can still remember what transpired 20 seasons ago and will keep believing that anything is possible.
Believer in Blue: Football, My Life, My Faith by Marvin Andrews with David Mason is published by Pitch Publishing and is available to buy now.
