I knocked Rangers out the Scottish Cup – I couldn’t celebrate and my own BROTHER wouldn’t even look at me
When it comes to eliminating Rangers from the Scottish Cup, Colin Miller is the man to ask.
Even his own brother wouldn’t look at him after it, so it was a bittersweet experience for him when he did it in 1995. He’s a passionate Ibrox fan.
While the Canadian did spend two seasons at Ibrox (1984–1986), his breakout performance came with Hearts many years later, when his free-kick set the Jambos on a 4-2 fourth-round victory.
Now 60 years old and coaching in his own country, the experience evokes conflicting feelings in him.
He said that his brother was uncommunicative, and his teammates scolded him for not celebrating. John Robertson and John Colquhoun scolded him for not celebrating after scoring, so I jogged back to my place,” he explained to the Scottish Sun..
But they were all aware of my feelings against the Rangers, which persist even after all these years.
It had nothing to do with Hearts; I took great pride in representing such an esteemed club on the field.
Even though I didn’t score many goals in my career, I couldn’t truly rejoice scoring against them because I was a Rangers fan.
My brother Dal and his wife Jackie dropped into the players’ lounge at Tynecastle after the game.
He extended his hand to shake mine, but it was the kind where he turned his head the other way! I was really looking at the Rangers team that played that night and what a team they had out.
None of the current team would have got on that team bus.
“Any time you played the Old Firm and beat them it was a tremendous night for our supporters.
There’s still footage of the game on the internet. I can remember my aim.
At the time the fad was for defensive walls to leap at free-kicks, and I had an inkling Rangers might do that, so I concentrated on keeping my shot as low and hard as I could.
“There wasn’t any of the ‘draught excluder’ teams have now, with someone lying on the ground behind the wall.
Fortunately they all jumped and it got underneath and went in at Ally Maxwell’s post.
“The second odd thing was that my parents and dad watched the game in the Rangers’ Supporters Club in Vancouver and as it went in my mum sprang up cheering and was the only one clapping her hands.
My dad had to quietly bring her back down. Probably because I didn’t score many goals, if I bump into a Hearts supporter, they seem to remember that one.
The only other one I scored for the Jambos was against Motherwell at Fir Park.
“It was a wonderful joy to play for Hearts at that time since I had some good team-mates who were very top players.
There was Craig Levein and John Robertson of course. And Jim Bett was present at the moment.
Gary Mackay was Mr Hearts. It was a pretty wonderful group.”
Miller is currently Technical Lead for Abbotsford Soccer Association near Vancouver and he confesses he’ll be up early to watch his two former sides do fight on Sunday morning – even if it’s not a great timer to support his favorite Rangers.
“This is as low as I’ve been as a Rangers supporter, and that’s saying a lot,” he remarked.
“Surely there will be a reaction from the Queen’s Park result and that’s with the greatest respect to them.
It’s a 4am kick-off here, but I’ll be up to watch.”
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