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In the late 19th Century, on Thursday 21st May 1891, a crowd of 10,000 football fans were present at Cathkin in Glasgow to witness Rangers (after drawing 2-2 in a play-off game with Dumbarton) become joint champions in the very first Scottish League Championship.
Over 100 years later, at Ibrox Stadium on the afternoon of Sunday 25th May 2003, present day supporters of the club celebrated in the sun as Rangers won yet another league title with a convincing 6-1 victory over Dunfermline. As I will go on to describe later, the scoreline only tells a small part of what happened on one of the most dramatic days in Scottish Football.
The significance of this League Championship win though was that Rangers Football Club became the first club anywhere in the world, to win 50 League Championships, a feat which has been commemorated by adding the 5 stars over the club badge.
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Sunday 25th May 2003 was the date, three o'clock was the time, Rangers played Dunfermline at Ibrox, whilst Celtic took on Kilmarnock at Rugby Park. The teams were level on points, level on goal difference, with Rangers having scored one more goal. If Rangers won, and scored and conceded the same number of goals they would be champions.
Rangers got off to a dream start, in the 2nd Michael Mols breached the Dunfermline defence to put the Gers one up, and perhaps calmed some nerves inside Ibrox. It wasn't long before nerves were frayed again when Dunfermline equalised in the 11th minute through Jason Dair. It was only 5 minutes before Rangers regained the lead through Caniggia, it was back to square one a minute later when Sutton put Celtic one up at Rugby Park! In the 29th minute Shota Arveladze regained Rangers advantage, making it 3-1 Rangers, the news filtered through that Celtic were now 2-0 up, but Rangers were one ahead in goals scored. In the 54th minute Thompson scored a penalty at Rugby Park and for the first time that day put Celtic in the driving seat. Ronald de Boer put things on a level again, heading a Neil McCann cross past Derek Stillie. Things really swung in Rangers favour two minutes later when Stevie Thompson put Rangers 5-1 up, Celtic were awarded a second penalty at Rugby Park, but a roar went round Ibrox as news came through that Thompson had missed. Rangers needed one more goal to secure it, and in the last minute were awarded a penalty. It was Mikael Arteta, the coolest man in Ibrox, who slotted it past Stillie and sent Ibrox crazy. Celtic now had to score twice in the last 2 minutes to win it. When news filtered through that Celtic had won 4-0 it was official, Rangers were the first club in the world to win 50 League Championships.
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While the Rangers players, officials, and fans celebrated, Chris Sutton confirmed what all Rangers fans know, Celtic cannot win with dignity and they certainly cannot lose with dignity. He said that the Celtic team had discussed it the night before and thought that Dunfermline would lie down to Rangers. What made this comment all the more incredible was the fact that Sutton couldn't have possibly seen the game. The Celtic fans broke some 300 seats inside Rugby Park, and threatened the Dunfermline chairman and his family.
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