A 76-year-old match programme from one of Rangers’ first post-war fixtures overseas is expected to change hands for a four-figure sum when it goes under the hammer next month.
The 16-page publication produced for the Ibrox club’s friendly against this week’s Europa League last-16 opponents Benfica in Lisbon on 10 February 1948 will be given a guide price of between £800 and £1,200 when details go live online this Friday ahead of its auction at Glasgow’s Trades Hall on 10 April.
It has been described by auctioneer and sporting memorabilia specialist David Convery as “one of the rarest Rangers and indeed Scottish post-Second World War match programmes in existence”.
Even allowing for the fact the spine has been taped, Scottish football memorabilia enthusiasts forecast that the programme, printed in an era of paper rationing across the world, will appeal to many Gers collectors and fetch significantly more than the reserve price.
It fell into the hands of fledgling Edinburgh collector Neil Brown when gifted to him by his Sunday school teacher as part of a random batch of programmes in the early 1960s.
The now 70-year-old Hearts supporter has no idea how such a rare item made its way back to Scotland following a match – some two and a half years after the end of the war – in which few of a Rangers persuasion beyond team and officials were in attendance.
“When I was 11 years old, my Sunday school teacher found out I’d started collecting programmes and brought in a bag of about 15 old programmes for me,” said Brown.
“I had no awareness at that point that it would be of any value in the future because in those days I was just collecting as a hobby.
“It was only probably in the 1980s, when people started to take a real interest in the value of such things, that I started to realise the significance of this particular programme and how rare it might be.
“I’ve collected all kinds of sport and music memorabilia over the years, such as comics, magazines, vinyl and football programmes, and it has all got a bit out of control!
“It has been fantastic to own such a rare item for so long but I’ve been trying to down-size for some time so now, unfortunately, is the time for it to go and let someone else enjoy it.”
Brown contacted the auctioneers in January and by sheer coincidence his prized programme – with a cover price of 1 Escudo – will be going under the hammer just weeks after Benfica and Rangers were reunited in the Europa League. The two sides are tied at 2-2 ahead of Thursday’s second leg at Ibrox.
Their encounter at Lisbon’s Estadio Nacional 76 years ago was the first ever meeting between the clubs and it represented Rangers’ second post-war match overseas – their first was against the Combined Services in Hannover in October 1945.
Bill Struth’s Gers side defeated the Portuguese 3-0 in front of an estimated crowd of 60,000, with Jimmy Duncanson scoring twice and Willie Thornton also on target.
As a romantic aside, former Rangers player and manager Willie Waddell met his wife Hilda when she was working as an air hostess on the flight to Lisbon for the match.
Bristol City Women 0-4 Man City Women: Hosts relegated as Fowler double inspires WSL leaders
Mary Fowler scored twice to set WSL leaders Manchester City on their way to a 4-0 rout of Bristol City, who suffered relegation as a result, on Sunday.
With Arsenal having drawn with Everton earlier in the day, Man City knew a victory would be enough to take the title race down to two teams.
That victory duly arrived in emphatic fashion, with all four of Man City's goals arriving in the second half.
Fowler's fantastic strike opened the scoring in the 62nd minute, with the Australia international doubling her tally soon after, paving the way for an Amy Rodgers own goal and Alex Greenwood's late header to seal a huge victory.
Arsenal are now out of the title race, with Chelsea - who have two games in hand on Gareth Taylor's team - the only side capable of catching Man City.
The Robins, meanwhile, will be playing in the second tier again next term.
Data Debrief: Bristol heading down with a whimper
Bristol City have failed to score in their last five games in the WSL, a run of 544 minutes without a goal.
They mustered just 0.09 expected goals (xG) to Man City's 3.4, with the visitors having now kept a clean sheet in nine of their 20 league games this season.
De Rossi demands more from 'tired' Roma ahead of crunch run
Daniele De Rossi acknowledged his Roma team may be tired, but he insisted they must not allow themselves to be embarrassed.
Roma fought back to draw 2-2 with last season's Serie A champions Napoli in a pulsating fixture on Sunday.
Tammy Abraham's late header secured a point for De Rossi's team, who took the lead through Paulo Dybala's penalty before going behind to goals from Matias Olivera and Victor Osimhen.
With Serie A set to have five teams in the Champions League next season, Roma occupy fifth spot with four matches remaining, but sixth-placed Atalanta are just two points behind with a game in hand.
There is also the small matter of a Europa League semi-final against Bundesliga champions Bayer Leverkusen on the cards over the coming weeks, and De Rossi set the stall out.
"We drew, it is not a result to throw away, but it is not the result or the performance that we wanted," Roma coach Daniele De Rossi told Sky Sports Italia.
"At times you can steal the ball off Napoli, but we then gave it back again too many times. Napoli had a lot of chances in the first half, we did better in the second, but we have to do better.
"Look, we are tired, but we cannot start thinking that we’re tired and that means we can be embarrassed in the final few weeks of the season."
Roma host Leverkusen on Thursday before taking on Juventus on May 5, with a crunch clash against Atalanta – who are also into the Europa League semi-finals – set to follow after the away leg against Xabi Alonso's team.
Key to a successful end to the campaign for Roma will be keeping Dybala fit. The Argentine has been involved in the joint-most goals (12) in Serie A since the turn of the year, scoring nine and setting up three, level with Juve's Dusan Vlahovic.
PSG's latest Ligue 1 title arrives as Monaco lose to Lyon
Paris Saint-Germain have been crowned as Ligue 1 champions after Lyon overcame Monaco 3-2 on Sunday.
A 4-1 midweek win over Lorient ensured that one more victory would be enough for Luis Enrique's team to get over the line, but PSG failed to get the job done themselves when they faced relegation-threatened Le Havre on Saturday.
That game was the 700th match of the QSI era at PSG, and the club's 1,900th in France's top flight.
However, PSG's wait to win their third straight title did not last long, as less than 24 hours later, Lyon – who will face the Parisians in the final of the Coupe de France at the end of May – came out on top in a topsy turvy encounter with second-placed Monaco.
Substitute Malick Fofana was the matchwinner for Lyon, and ultimately the player who handed the title to PSG.
Wissam Ben Yedder had put Monaco ahead in the opening minute, but quickfire goals from Alexandre Lacazette and Said Benrahma turned the match on its head before half-time.
Ben Yedder netted his second to restore parity on the hour mark, and thought he had sealed his hat-trick when he volleyed in from a free-kick, only to have strayed offside.
With only a win good enough for Monaco to stay in the fight, the visitors were then caught out in the 84th minute, with Fofana racing onto Lacazette's throughball and finishing calmly.
After a dismal start to the season, relegation looked a real possibility for Lyon, but they are now, with three games remaining, still in with a shout of qualifying for Europe.
PSG on the other hand now have 12 Ligue 1 titles to their name, with 10 of those coming under QSI's ownership. Aside from the COVID-impacted 2019-20 season, five of their last six league titles have been secured before the start of May.
It also means Luis Enrique remains in the running for a treble in his first season at the club, with PSG taking on Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League semi-finals next week.
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