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Rangers fan wins race from Seville to Lewis for 100th party

Crossley family Family picCrossley family
Donald Ferguson (front right), whose Gaelic nickname is Putan, and family marked his 100th birthday with a party on Friday.

A Rangers fan made an epic journey home from Seville to Stornoway via Portugal, Denmark and Sweden so he could attend his grandfather's 100th birthday party.

Dan Crossley left Callanish, Isle of Lewis, last weekend to cheer on the Ibrox club in the Europa League final.

But after watching the defeat against Eintracht Frankfurt on penalties he left the city with his father Jimmy in the early hours of Thursday.

And with 90 minutes to spare they made it back home to Lewis for the party.

Mr Crossley's grandfather Donald Ferguson was joined by family including his daughter, grandchildren and great grandchildren for the celebration in Laxay.

But none of the guests had faced the same hurdles to be there as Mr Crossley and his father.

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Last Saturday they left Callanish to catch the 21:00 ferry from Tarbert to Skye.

They then drove through the night to get to Edinburgh before boarding a 07:00 flight to Brussels.

The next stop was Porto from where they picked up a hire car and drove to Albufeira.

On Tuesday Mr Crossley told BBC's Reporting Scotland he had two major fixtures to think about.

He said: "It is my grandpa's 100th birthday on Friday so I've got to make sure I get back for that."

Dan and Dad in Portugal
Dan Crossley and his father Jimmy spoke to BBC Reporting Scotland last week from Albufeira in Portugal.

After a few days in the sun they caught a bus to Seville on Wednesday for arguably the biggest match in the Glasgow club's 150-year history.

Rangers and Eintracht Frankfurt could not be separated after 120 minutes and the game went to penalties, with the German side winning 5-4.

Within hours of the final whistle Mr Crossley and his father were back on the bus to Albufeira.

birthday cards
Donald Ferguson's birthday cake featured a tractor and his pet dog, Dan, while his cards included one from The Queen

And if the journey to Seville was remarkable it was surpassed by their route home.

Mr Crossley said: "The only flight I could find were complicated ones through Denmark and Sweden but it gets me home in time."

A drive from Albufeira to Porto was followed by flights to Billund in Demark, Gothenburg in Sweden and Edinburgh.

The final flight for Mr Crossley and his father landed in Stornoway at 16:00 on Friday and, after a quick freshen up they were at the party 90 minutes later.