Fans angry over controversial Rangers banner on the anniversary of former County Derry player

Football fans have hit out at Rangers F.C. fans who unveiled a controversial banner on the anniversary of the death of a former player from Co Derry.

During their victory over Partick on April 15 at Ibrox a group of Rangers fans displayed a banner which read “He was a proud young Protestant. Sam English 1908- 1967.”

Commenters have described the banner as “appalling” and “shameful” as they believe the group of fans were glorifying an incident where English was involved in the death of a Celtic player.

Sam English was born in Aghadowey in 1908 and moved to Dalmuir, Scotland when he was 16. He played for Rangers from 1931 to 1933 and broke the club’s scoring record in his debut season, scoring 44 goals in 35 league games.

During a match in September 1931, he collided with Celtic goalkeeper John Thomson. Thomson suffered serious head injuries and died that evening as a result of the incident. English was cleared of any blame, but suffered abuse from Scottish fans following Thomson’s death.

He moved to England to play for Liverpool and continued to be haunted by the incident. When he left the sport in 1938, he told a friend that he had played “seven years of joyless sport” since the death of Thomson. English died at the age of 58 on April 12 1967, following a battle with motor neurone disease.

Commenters on Twitter hit out at the banner, which they described as “distasteful.”

“Sam English never recovered after the tragic death of Johnny Thomson. Yet these "people" seek to glorify the event. They don't have a clue,” one man said, while another suggested that “without google there's hardly any rangers fans that know who Sam English is.”

Rangers fans responded that the “proud young Protestant” line is a reference to a song commemorating the death of Thomson.

“Probably nothing sinister about the Sam English banner. He played a whopping 60 (SIXTY) games for Rangers after all...,” wrote one fan.

Another Twitter user struggled to understand why the banner was an issue.

“I was going to say I have no idea why the Sam English banner is apparently controversial, but it's Rangers in Scotland, so I do. Tiresome,” he wrote.

The centenary of Sam English’s birth was celebrated at a special ceremony by Coleraine Borough Council in 2008. East Derry MP Gregory Campbell, a life-time Rangers fan tabled a parliamentary motion calling for the English’s life to be commemorated in 2008.

The motion noted that the “deeply tragic death” of Thomson overshadowed English’s life but welcomed “the efforts those involved with Glasgow Rangers FC are undertaking to ensure that this Ulsterman will be remembered for his goal scoring exploits rather than an accident from which an official inquiry at the time cleared him of any malicious intent.”