The truth about that 10 in a row celebration
He’d just scored the only goal of a fierce Old Firm fixture just three weeks after answering an SOS from Walter Smith to return to Rangers after clinching nine in a row.
A defensive injury crisis had left the manager without regular stoppers Lorenzo Amoruso and Alan McLaren.
Gough left Kansas City after only three months to answer the cry for help and looked like he’d set his club on the road to the fabled 10 with his strike.
And, to be fair, his celebration looked like he thought so too.
Certainly, that’s how the Celtic team took it and in the years that followed some of their players insisted that moment helped galvanise them in a season that ended with them stopping their rivals reaching the Holy Grail.
Gough, though, is adamant his celebration was nothing of the sort and was yet another urban myth to emerge from this long-running, crazy rivalry that courses through the veins of every Rangers and Celtic fan and player.
Reflecting on the moment from his home in California, the events of season 1997/98 must seem light years away but the 58-year-old remembers them clearly.
And none more so than that crazy day at Ibrox.
Gough said: “I was away for about three months and came back to help out in the year we were going for 10 in a row.
“In my third game back, we played Celtic and I scored.
“I’ve since read that wee Jackie McNamara – and I am delighted he is on the mend after his health scare – said that my celebration that day fired up his team because they thought that by raising both hands into the air and pumping them up and down I was supposed to be saying, ‘that’s the 10’.
“It wasn’t. That’s never been my style and I was certainly taking nothing for granted as early as October or November.
“What happened was this. I’d been playing in Kansas City and when their American football team, the Kansas City Chiefs got a touchdown, their players lifted both arms in the air as if they were raising the roof.
“I didn’t think I’d score but before the game I said to Gazza, Negri and Laudrup, ‘if you score, give it the raising the roof celebration that I used to see in Kansas’. It was never about 10 in a row.
“I could have baited Celtic a lot of other times in my career and I didn’t do it, so there’s no way I was going to do it with so much on the line that season.”
One of those occasions when Gough could have lorded it over
Rangers’ rivals was when Mo Johnston was snatched from under Celtic’s noses by Graeme Souness in 1989.
The move caused headlines across the world but Gough insists everyone inside Ibrox took the stunning transfer switch in their stride.
He said: “To the players it wasn’t such a big thing.
“We were just really happy that another really good player was coming to the club. I remember playing England in May of that year, the last game of the season and I was about to head back to South Africa on holiday.
“As I was leaving, Mo called over, ‘I’ll see you in pre-season big man,’ and gave me a wink.
“I waved back and thought he’d meant that he’d see me next season because he’d be a Celtic player again.
“He was just winding me up, as usual.
“That was a coup by Souness because wee Mo was one of the best Scottish strikers I played with. He was with Nantes in France, was 11 stones dripping wet and he was as tough as nails. He was a good scorer and when he came to us, he had a point to prove. He was terrific, particularly in his first season.
“And it did put a dent in Celtic’s armour because he’d been pictured with the shirt on with big Billy McNeill.
“He’d played with a lot of our players at Scotland and was a good lad who fitted into the dressing room easily. There were little wind-ups but there was
I could’ve Celtic baited times plenty of but I going to wasn’t much with so on the line RICHARD GOUGH TALKSDOWN HISFAMOUS CELEBRAT ION
absolutely no animosity towards Mo within the club.
“And although there was a lot made of whether our fans would accept him, they did. Scoring a last-minute goal against Celtic might have helped!
“So, with Mo there were no doubts. I could always tell within a week or two if a player was going to make it with us and it wasn’t just about ability.
“It was personality, confidence, how they mixed with the rest of the squad.
“There were some that the jersey was too big for but Graeme and Walter got far more right than they did wrong and they definitely got it right with Mo.”
Smith took over from Liverpool-bound Souness in April 1991 and Gough believes both managers made a massive impression on him.
He said: “Graeme was more emotional about the whole situation. Remember that when Graeme came, he was still a player. He wasn’t a mature manager.
“Walter was more experienced by the time he took over. He’d seen a lot of things and had been to a World Cup as a coach. He kept his emotions hidden a wee bit more. I can remember some team talks from Graeme that made the hairs on the back of your neck stand up.
“You went out there thinking, ‘ we have to win – there’s no option’. Walter was calmer but they both made it clear how much it meant to our supporters.
“This season will be massive because there’s another 10 in a row on the line – this time for Celtic – but in general terms I don’t think it’s quite as intense within the respective dressing rooms these days because there’s not as many Scottish boys. We had a core of Scots, even though we had a lot of foreign players.
“More than that, we had a lot of Rangers supporters in that dressing room and Celtic did in theirs as well. They had Paul McStay, Peter Grant, Simon Donnelly, Jackie McNamara.
“These days, the players know about it obviously, but I don’t think they can relate to it in the ways the boys who have lived it all their lives can.
“The one thing that never changes is the fans. Their passion for their team, Rangers or Celtic, will never be diluted.”