OF all the characters in the story of Rangers in recent years, few have a tale to tell quite like Craig Houston. The Gers fan found himself at the centre of the battle for regime change and carried a private burden as a result of his public exploits that thrust him into the limelight and the firing line.

His book, ‘Sons of Struth Demand the Truth’ tells his story during the fight for his club. In part two of SportTimes’ exclusive serialisation, read about one of his finest hours on the march to Ibrox, the email that got Rangers fans firmly on board and the moment he celebrated regime change with the nephew of the legendary Bill Struth.

THE biggest event we did over the close season last year was the March on Ibrox. There was a Free Palestine march from Glasgow city centre to the BBC studios at Pacific Quay that same day which created an issue.

There was a lot of planning involved in that march. It probably required the most preparation of anything I did throughout the whole campaign. It was certainly the most pressure I was under.

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I started preparing for it in May after we failed to get the assurances we were looking for over the stadium. From a personal point of view, I had to do something. I couldn’t let them away with that.

I thought: “How can I get back at them? How can I encourage fans to get involved?” The idea of walking to Kinning Park, where our previous stadium was situated, to Ibrox was quite symbolic. We also decided it would get underway at three o’clock on a Saturday afternoon when obviously most of our games kicked off.

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On the day of the march it rained all morning. It was a torrential downpour. It turned out to be the only wet day in the whole of July. It was a monsoon.

When I turned up a couple of hours before it was due to start in order to get organised and saw the weather I thought to myself: “This just ain’t gonna happen today. We’re going to get 500 people if we’re lucky.”

Those taking part were congregating at a triangle of pubs on Paisley Road West - The Bellrock, The District Bar and The Grapes. I kept nipping along to see how many folk there were there.

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I was telling myself: “This is going to be embarrassing.” Then, just 10 minutes before we were due to start, I had to go speak to the police officer in charge to go through a list of questions for legal reasons.

Because of the weather, we went and sat in a police mini-bus. The rain was getting heavier and heavier. I was looking out and thinking: “We’ve got more marshalls than marchers!”

Andy Smillie had given us the use of a flatbed truck for the day. He had put scaffolding around the side and hung up flags.

Before we set off, John Brown, the former Rangers player, Ian McColl, from the Founders Trail, Sandy Chugg and I were going to stand on it and speak. I convinced myself there was going to be virtually nobody to address.

But as I got up onto the truck something happened. People start to empty out of pubs. They popped out from behind trees. They emerged from closes.

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They got out of cars parked up side streets. I can remember looking around at this and thinking: “We’ve pulled it off again! In the p****** rain as well! They’ve got what we’re trying to do.” It turned out to be quite an inspiring day.

The speeches took around 10 minutes. Ian spoke about the history of the club and the significance of the route. The Founding Fathers had played in and rented stadiums for 14 nomadic years.

But during that time they had always wanted their own home. They worked tirelessly to make the move from Kinning Park to Ibrox. We were making the same journey in an attempt to secure what they had striven for some 120 years before. We were trying to achieve the same thing in some respects.

After Bomber spoke before the march, I got up and said some words. I was really inspired by what I saw in front of me. I was moved by so many people coming out in such terrible conditions to show their support for what we were trying to achieve.

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I said to them: “I promise you we are going to win this. The reason for that is we are Rangers supporters. We were here before them and we’ll be here after them. We will outlive any board. I don’t know if we’ll win in a month, a year or 10 years. But as long as we keep at it we will win.”

Then off we went. We marched from halfway down Scotland Street where the old stadium used to be, passed the subway station and turned left onto Paisley Road West. I was at the front and as we got a few hundred yards further along a policeman said to me: “Craig, you’ve pulled some crowd. Go and have a look. They’re still coming around the corner.”

I went and stood on the pavement. All I could see was a sea of people. More people were coming out of pubs, cafes, shops and cars and joining in.

One guy came all from Hong Kong. He didn’t come over to Scotland specifically to take part in the march. But he was delighted when he found out it was on just after his plane landed in Glasgow. So he came along and joined in.

There were elderly people with walking aids. There were families with dogs. There were babies who were just months old being pushed in prams.

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There were banners, flags, whistles, all sorts of things. It was a touching show of power and strength and unity.

When we got to Edmiston Drive we turned right towards Ibrox. I was able to look back once again in amazement to see how many people there were. When we got to the front door of the stadium the truck was parked and waiting – the police had shut down the whole street just like they do on match days - and we got up on it again. It must have taken 15 minutes for everyone to arrive. The police later said around 3,500 took part.

The march was a success. It showed the strength of feeling there was among the support. It highlighted the displeasure there was. We got some great publicity too. It made the newspapers, radio and television.

Sons of Struth demand the truth' is released on December 11 and available from http://store.sonsofstruth.co.uk/products/sons-of-struth-demand-the-truth-pre-launch-order