A sticky start but Gough knew Andy would be a great
RICHARD GOUGH watched Andy Goram struggle through his early games at Rangers and staged a captain’s intervention. Goram’s discomfort under cross balls was exposed in the aftermath of his £1million transfer from Hibs, not least when he gifted an easy goal that helped his old club win a League Cup semi-final at Hampden in the autumn of 1991.
Skipper of Rangers’ nine-in-arow team, Gough quickly identified the issue.
‘When he first came to the club, Andy was trying to come for crosses so we had a chat, as you do,’ recounts Gough via telephone from his California home. ‘I said: “Look Andy, I’ll play a high line and keep the boys out of the box. Don’t worry about coming for crosses. We’ll make it hard for the opposition going for headers”.
‘He was still bedding himself in but we went to Parkhead not long after that and he was terrific. We got a 0-0 draw.
‘But I already knew he’d be fine. I could always tell within a couple of weeks whether a player would settle or not. Straight away, Andy hated losing goals in training, never mind games, so I knew he was a good one.’
Gough admits it’s hard to process the passing of one of his most formidable colleagues at the age of just 58.
Goram’s personality and colourful social life required some clever and sometimes blunt man management from Walter Smith.
‘We had a lot of big personalities at the club but Walter knew how to manage Goram, Gascoigne, McCoist even Laudrup — all very different characters,’ says Gough. ‘Goram wasn’t easily managed, especially when he got injured. He had a few problems with his knee and that could put him out for a while.
‘He’d go away and put on a few pounds and Walter would then have a problem. Andy needed that strong guiding hand.’
Gough first encountered
Goram in 1985 when the young keeper earned his first Scotland call-up
‘Sir Alex (Ferguson) brought him in and I just remember
Andy being very young and hungry,’ he recalls. ‘He trained well and not long after that, he signed for Hibs, did well and then came to our place when Walter needed to bring in more Scottish players for Europe.
‘Walter went for Andy, Stuart McCall and Gordon Durie, too. His performances in that second season, both domestically and in Europe were top class.’
Season 1992-93 would see Rangers defeat Leeds United to qualify for the inaugural Champions League, with Goram outstanding throughout the run and earning both of Scotland’s main Player of the Year awards.
‘Andy was good in the dressingroom, he was confident and he was a winner,’ adds Gough.
‘I’ve played with some terrific keepers. At Dundee United, Hamish McAlpine was an extrovert, brilliant with the ball at his feet.
‘Then I went down to Spurs and it was Ray Clemence, who I have to say taught me more than any other keeper I played with. Chrissy Woods was also terrific for Rangers, but then came Andy.
‘So I’ve played with two of England’s best in Clemence and Woods but I have to say Goram was the greatest, just for the saves he would make.
‘That high line we liked didn’t always work and occasionally a striker would get through. I’d be expecting the forward to score but they very rarely did.
‘Andy gained that reputation in those one-v-one situations where he could stand up and try to read the striker.
‘He made brilliant instinctive saves, too. I remember the pointblank one at Ibrox from Pierre Van Hooijdonk. He also saved a penalty from the same player at Parkhead.
‘I went to congratulate him after that and he was screaming at me: “Goughie, get ready for the corner”. He was so in the zone.
‘I later went down to Everton and no disrespect to the keepers there, but there would be goals we’d concede that just wouldn’t have happened with Andy.
‘He rarely got beaten from outside the box and I’d got used to him pulling off these special saves that few keepers can.
‘Goram had the quality to make that little difference. At his peak he was top quality, the best goalkeeper in Rangers’ history.’