History | Cliff Jones on the night Jimmy Greaves silenced Ibrox - 62 years ago today

Two things stick in Cliff Jones' mind from the night he stepped out at Glasgow’s Ibrox Stadium in the European Cup Winners' Cup 62 years ago today - December 11, 1962.

One was the sheer noise of almost 80,000 fans in Rangers' famous old ground.

The second was silencing that noise when Jimmy Greaves burst through to smash home the opening goal with just eight minutes on the clock.

That made the aggregate score 6-2 in our favour in the second leg of the second round tie dubbed the 'Battle of Britain'. We went on to win 3-2 on the night and 8-4 over the two legs, played in front of a combined 140,000 fans in October and December, 1962. Of course, we went on to secure the trophy that season and make history by becoming the first British club to lift a European trophy.

Speaking to us on the 50th anniversary of that famous night, Cliff, who played in both legs, went straight to the atmosphere at Ibrox. "It was amazing,” recalled the legendary winger. “I don’t know if I’ve ever experienced a sound like it. The cheering was so loud, it almost hurt. My ears were pinging. It was incredible.”

In the context of the overall tie, Bill Nicholson’s men did all the damage in an outstanding performance in the first leg at the Lane on 31 October, 1962. In front of almost 60,000, goals from John White (2), Maurice Norman, Les Allen and an own goal secured a 5-2 win.

That left Rangers with a mountain to climb, but Cliff feels the atmosphere at Ibrox stemmed from the home side’s belief that they could turn it around on the night.

“We’d beaten them 5-2 in the first leg at White Hart Lane and no doubt the Scottish press had whipped them all up into a frenzy - if they needed it - and they were really up for it," he said. "They came at us from the off but then within about 10 minutes, Jimmy Greaves scored and that sound disappeared. It was quite eerie in many ways.

“The contrast was amazing from coming out, the crescendo of noise, but Greavsie stuck that ball in the back of the net and it was all over really. I remember we clapped them off at the end out of respect (pictured at the top of this page). It was a fantastic couple of matches, a great tie in what was a memorable run.”

Bobby Smith netted twice at Ibrox as we completed that 8-4 aggregate. We went on to beat Slovan Bratislava (6-2 on aggregate) and OFK Belgrade (5-2) before that memorable night in Rotterdam where Terry Dyson tore Atletico Madrid apart, scoring twice as we lifted the trophy in style with a 5-1 win.