IN October 1988 Ally McCoist, the Rangers striker, took part in one of those light-hearted Q+A columns that newspaper sports pages run from time to time.
His “best goal scored” - and, this being McCoist, there were so many to choose from - was a 25-yarder against Aberdeen the previous season. “It was disallowed”, he acknowledged, “but I still rate it as my best”.
The “best goal seen” was Davie Cooper’s “delightful little lob in the Drybrough Cup final against Celtic”. His “most memorable match” was the Skol Cup final against Celtic in 1984, when he scored a hat-trick.
McCoist said that his club nickname was either “polecat” or “predator”; his biggest disappointment was not going to Mexico with Scotland for the 1986 World Cup but his main ambition was “to help Rangers win a European trophy and to play for Scotland in the World Cup finals”.
His favourite music included Def Leppard and Bruce Springsteen; his favourite TV show was Star Trek; his dislikes included a certain team-mate’s breath “the morning after he’s had a curry”; and his likes included “a night out with the boys”.
McCoist’s prodigious goal-scoring feats are highlighted in the Rangers Hall of Fame. To quote: “In 15 glorious years as a Light Blue, McCoist smashed all of the striking records to set a standard which, given the frequent movement of players these days, which will never be bettered.
“He holds the Rangers record for league and European goals. He was the first Scottish player to win the Golden Boot, then promptly retained it, and he was the club’s leading scorer in nine of his 15 seasons.
“His predatory power was simply awesome and he added to the spectacle of it all with his effervescent personality and natural wit which has stood him in good stead in his current television career”.
McCoist, it adds, scored 34 goals in the league in three different seasons - 1986-87, 1991-92 and 1992-93. He recorded no fewer than 28 hat-tricks for Rangers, and his best individual haul in a match came against Falkirk in October 1992, when he scored all four goals. He claimed 27 goals against Celtic, and he was one of only three players to be present during the Nine-in-a-Row run between 1989 and 1997.
He won 61 international caps, his final two coming in 1998.
Read more: Herald Diary
McCoist is pictured, right, scoring one of his three goals against Celtic in Rangers’ 3-2 extra-time Scottish League Cup final triumph in March 1984 (he was named player of the match by the sponsors, Skol); and, above, with team-mate Mark Falco after they had got the goals in Rangers’ 2-0 home win over Dynamo Kiev in the European Cup in September 1987.
McCoist was the manager of Rangers for almost four years until he tendered his resignation in December 2014. His time in charge coincided with the club’s off-field difficulties, including administration and liquidation, and the side’s gradual rise from the bottom tier of Scottish football.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here