Jim Forrest dead at 79 as Rangers and Scottish football mourn legendary striker

Rangers legend Jim Forrest has died at the age of 79, the Ibrox club have announced.

The former striker signed for his boyhood heroes as a schoolboy in 1961 and spent five years in the first team and became a prolific scorer during that time, netting 145 goals in his 163 games for the Light Blues, and winning one league title and two League Cups.

Forrest's best season for the club came in 1964/65 when he scored a staggering 57 goals in all competitions and that is just two short of Celtic great Jimmy McGrory's record for the most goals scored in a season in British football. Forrest – capped five times by Scotland – also held the record for the most goals scored by a Rangers player after bagging five against Stirling Albion in an 8-0 League Cup rout of the Binos in 1966. Derek Parlane (1974) and Marco Negri (1997) later matched that.

But for all of his success at Rangers, his time at Ibrox ended on a sour note when, along with George McLean, he was made a scapegoat for the humiliating Scottish Cup loss to Berwick Rangers. He was transferred by then boss Scot Symon within weeks of that defeat that sent shockwaves throughout British football.

Forrest – the cousin of ex Rangers star Alex Willoughby – moved south of the border where he joined Preston North End before returning to Scotland with Aberdeen where he spent five years, earning a Scottish Cup winners' medal in 1970. He then had spells overseas with Cape Town City, Hong Kong Rangers and San Antonio Thunder.

The Ibrox club announced in a statement: "The Rangers family is today saddened by the loss of former striker, Jim Forrest, at the age of 79. Mr Forrest will be remembered as the most prolific forward in the club's post-war history, netting 145 goals in 163 game