By Stevie Clifford
Definitely worth a celebration and a small trip down memory lane. I was introduced to Follow Follow in it’s early days, slightly too late to meet one of the legendary figures of the board in Ethal Cardew but his joyful ways were still the talk of the message board.FF quickly became a way of life. Always the go to place for the latest gossip, ‘medical maw’ became a household saying for many of us. Whether it was teamnews or signing news, it very rarely wasn’t on the site.My own journey was somewhat interesting. From my own posting as Sccgers to ID10, we broke some stories, denied some stories and were way off on others. It was part of the magic of the message board that everyone had a little part to play, of course, the first reply was genuinely always right.FF was also the birth place for my own website being born, Mark Dingwall allowing me the space to promote it and lots of encouragement given by the admin team largely across the board which gave things a platform in the early days. Yes, 4Lads was born on FF and something I am eternal grateful for was that early support of the posters and FF community.But it was more than a Rangers message board, the lounge became a place to fix your ‘worldly issues’ and get any advice you needed, who can forget the many posts of ‘GIP’ as some mysterious blonde model had become the latest FF darling. Many a ticket has been ‘sought’ from FF too as well as the regular Saturday games of FF11s across the road from our stadium.Yes, we even took a bus to Stuttgart in the champions league with 50 FFers stuck on a bus for 23 hrs just to be rewarded with a 60 yard run from Madjid Bougherra and an electrifying finish as that return 23hr journey at least had a point to be grateful for.Then we have had the lows of Paul Le Guen, the infamous whose camp were you in. Barry or PLG, the breaking of somewhat disbelief as we learned Gavin Rae would be the new club captain and the impending fall out shortly after. The ‘six finger’ salute and the infamous ‘monster munch’ gang.Walters return, Manchester and three bounce titles were a high but those highs were a footnote on what was to come. Indeed it was myself and fellow poster ‘Laudrup1’ who posted a somewhat infamous meeting with Paul Murray on the night of the ‘3 in 7mins’ thrashing of Killie to take Walters third title home.Murray predicted Whyte would flush this club down the toilet in 12 months and something we all would revisit many times as his horrible vision played out to a tee.Then there was the journey, The three bears return and Gerrards arrival as we finally reached the promised land of ‘55’. All taken together with familiar posters and FF ‘Friends’ celebrating and commiserating together.FF has became a way of life for a lot of people, a community, yes at times off the charts reaction levels but many people have got all the help they needed from a simple supporters message board.So what now? Now I don’t post as much, if any at all really but I still watch from afar. Days of getting into eight hour conversations in some thread, just to prove your point, are long gone but a fond memory.It wouldn’t have been a day gone by if I wasn’t arguing with ‘No8’ over something, God rest his soul.But FF remains, a staple of many a Rangers fan’s daily lives and routines.25 years of celebration are allowed to be celebrated or at the very least discussed with the acknowledgment of the many moments shared.What now?Is normality a wee bit much to ask for? On FF message board it is yes!But for our great club? The new owners can bring that can’t they? I think they might, I hope they might and wouldn’t it just be nice for all the agonising moments shared together over the ‘journey’ just to take us to people who really do want to return Rangers back to where we ‘belong’?!.For Russell Martin? Well he managed to pull long time FF lounge favourite Lucy Pinder so he us undoubtedly smooth.But as a manager, he’s still an untested and mostly untrusted quantity at this moment in time.In true FF fashion he’s went from ‘get him out’ and ‘we will win the lot’ in a jovial way in just three days but no matter how up nor down the messageboards in FF land are currently feeling, we all want the very same thing.Rangers to win.Happy Birthday FF.
