Ten years of Ibrox Noise

In two days from now, Ibrox Noise celebrates our official 10-year anniversary, and to kick off the build up, we wanted to make a personal comment about the last 10 years, and what the Journey for Rangers and the Journey for Ibrox Noise has meant.

We began life with yours truly penning a piece for a Rangers forum on the difficulties Ally McCoist was having replacing injured Steven Naismith.

They liked it so much they wanted it on the website front page.

That went down well so having been inspired by a site myself and two others once tried to start (a failed endeavour) I decided to begin Ibrox Noise initially on my own, on the 11th of November 2011.

Over the years it’s gone through as little change as we could have tried – I didn’t want to overhaul it because the basic purpose was simply talking about Rangers, and listening to what the readers said.

And in those early days, if just one person read a piece, that was good enough.

Nowadays, we’re deeply grateful for the audience which numbers into the many hundreds of thousands – sure, you guys do get a bit upset now and then, but we get an overall sense of appreciation for the content. For its candour, for its honesty, and for its transparency.

But of course there’s been a catch – we began life just as Rangers’ troubles were literally starting, November 2011, so we’ve been there since all of that, and we’ve followed the Journey in a way perhaps other Rangers sites haven’t. And it’s been a strange period in Rangers’ history to start a site, mirroring almost exactly the events at Ibrox with our own Noise!

But we’ve been there for the very good – 55, those amazing runs in Europe, getting back to the top flight and even the lower league promotions themselves, even if they don’t feel too great on reflection.

Why we began around Remembrance Sunday I’m not completely sure, a curious twist of fate perhaps?

But I would like to thank every single one of you who has helped, inspired, contributed, written, sourced, all of it over the years.

I’m not going to do a pretentious Oscar speech by naming everyone. I would literally be rattling off thousands of names and I’d be terrified I’d miss someone.

But you are all appreciated, and in most cases, you know exactly who you are.

And of course, the valued readers. Some of you have been here from the start, some a bit later, but the regulars and not so regulars are all appreciated too, for all your reading and agreeing and disagreeing – all about opinions!

So, here’s to another 10 years, and yet more Noise Ups!

WATP.