Don’t let bitter ending tarnish Barry’s return

McCoist pleads for supporters to forget Boozegate as Ibrox icon comes home

BARRY FERGUSON was only rehearsing his range of insolent behaviour when he first tested Ally McCoist’s patience. The kid brother of team-mate Derek often livened up McCoist’s visits to the Ferguson family home.

‘He was quite cheeky with me,’ recalled McCoist. ‘He certainly wouldn’t have got a degree in shyness. But I loved him, he had a bit of personality about him, even as a kid. And, living in a house with Derek, I think you’d need that!’

Dealing with his brazen conduct in far less innocent circumstances over two decades later, when Ferguson was a 31-year-old skipper of Rangers, was a headache that McCoist would not have expected him to bring upon a management team down a hotly-contested title stretch in 2009.

McCoist was assistant boss when Ferguson and accomplice Allan McGregor’s disrespect, while in disgrace at Hampden three days after the Boozegate episode at the Scotland camp, moved Walter Smith to fine and suspend the pair from the club.

Six weeks later Ferguson, stripped of the captaincy, played his final game for Rangers and watched Davie Weir lift the Scottish Cup to go with SPL silverware.

He returns to Ibrox in a professional capacity tomorrow night for the first time since, with McCoist insistent that fans should not let the last few months of his Rangers playing days linger in the memory as they welcome him home.

Ferguson’s haul of 15 trophies over two spells, Champions League performances and leading a Smith squad to the 2008 UEFA Cup Final should be the lasting achievements leaping to mind well ahead of the most controversial flashpoint of his career, according to McCoist.

McCoist said: ‘Boozegate was an episode that, looking back, we could all have done without. But I’d urge everyone not to tarnish Barry with that one episode. That would be grossly unfair — we’ve all done things in our career that we regret. I can safely say that was one of Allan and Barry’s.

‘We certainly shouldn’t judge a whole career on one mistake. He made one or two but we all have. If he wants a career in management, he’ll have to deal with those type of things himself. He’s been on the other side of the fence, like myself, so you appreciate that mistakes will be made.

‘I don’t think he left on a sour note. It certainly shouldn’t tarnish his time here, as far as I’m concerned. You have to look at it over the piece and be fair about it. He was a tremendous servant to Rangers.

‘It should never take away from the fact that he was a terrific captain and great Rangers player. Barry was a leader here. When he played, he led by example. He’d never ask his team-mates to do something that he wasn’t willing to do himself.

‘Barry won numerous trophies, played in great Rangers teams and got to a UEFA Cup Final. He’s right up there with the great Rangers captains because of his achievements. This is a chance for the supporters to welcome him back. We all will.’

McCoist has already paid Ferguson and his Clyde team the respect of making a personal check on them ahead of the Petrofac Training Cup tie. He watched their late League Two comeback last Saturday against Queen’s Park.

That Ferguson has moved into management is not a surprise to McCoist. He’s seen eyebrows raised about his own conversion to the dugout from the moment Smith appointed him to the Scotland backroom staff in 2005. However, McCoist was curious about the choice of starting out in the bottom tier of Scottish football after his trial run with Blackpool in a caretaker capacity towards the end of last season.

‘It’s a brave decision to go down the divisions,’ said McCoist. ‘It deserves real respect. One thing about Barry is that he loves his football. He always has. It’s his continued love for it that makes him want to stay in the game.

‘Look at the club he’s gone to — the players, the facilities, everything, although I’m led to believe that at Blackpool the players had to do their own washing too. The quality of player is also a factor. You could argue I’ve a similar problem myself. At one stage, I had 15 internationals in the team but now we don’t.

‘You just try to adjust to it the best you can. We still feel we have a fantastic group of players here — and Barry will be happy with the majority of the boys he’s got to work with. It will be a bit bizarre seeing him in the away dugout.

‘What I do know is we’ll be on guard. We have to be. But we’ve been on guard against that type of opposition for a couple of seasons now. We’ve had hiccups along the way but handled it reasonably well.

‘Barry’s in a no-lose situation. But the majority of the teams we face are the same. I’d probably include Hibs or Hearts in that as well because when we play them we have to win. I don’t think that’s the case with them.’