Thurso side’s cup tribute to Rangers legend
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A THURSO-based amateur football squad has been praised by Rangers’ director of football for keeping alive the memory of one of the Blues most respected players.
Sevens side Thurso Rangers once again staged the annual Davie Cooper Cup at the Naver all-weather pitch on Sunday, beating Thurso Spartans 6-3.
Rangers director of football Gordon Smith congratulated manager Alyn Gunn on continuing to run the cup and explained how he was a close friend of Cooper, a Rangers legend and Scotland international, who died in 1995 of a brain haemorrhage.
Gunn said he was delighted that the cup was back due to popular demand from his squad.
“To be honest it was a very good game. We went 0-1 down 20 seconds in but at half-time we were 4-1 up, so we turned it round and played really well,” he said.
“After a slow and scrappy start we did very well to come back into it.”
Thurso Rangers’ Willie Inrig took man of the match after scoring a hat-trick while his team-mate, Scott Bell, also put another three past the Spartans keeper.
Thurso Spartans’ three goals came courtesy of Graham Scollay and Scott Davidson.
A new trophy for the cup was sponsored this year by Jektec after the previous two cups were given pride of place at Ibrox.
The pitch fee was sponsored by Numax with the strips coming courtesy of the Park Hotel football team. Referee Bob Gunn waived his match fee.
Gunn also explained that he planned to take a step away from the technical area soon and hopes to find a suitable replacement to take the team forward.
“We’re open for people to come negotiate with us. My preferred option would be for someone else to take over as manager and I could stay on as owner
Interested parties can contact the manager at: alyn_gunn@yahoo.co.uk.
The Rangers fan team got together four years ago and played several seasons in the amateur sevens league on the all-weather pitch.
After securing sponsors they decided to put on a cup competition in memory of left-winger Cooper, one of the most respected players in Rangers’ history.
