Gazza on a peg: Paul Gascoigne’s hilarious punishment after fighting with Ally McCoist at Rangers

Paul Gascoigne and Ally McCoist were, uncharacteristically, arguing. The date? November 24, 1996. The occasion: Scottish League Cup final.

Rangers were leading Hearts 2-1 heading into half-time of the final, with McCoist having bagged a brace. Rangers' opponents had pulled a goal back in the 44th minute, though, creating tension among the Gers' squad. 

Gazza and McCoist weren't on the same wavelength, either, with the former losing the ball in attempts to find his team-mate. After throwing his arms in the air, McCoist snapped.

“I ran up and I grabbed him by the scruff of the neck," McCoist explained to Talksport, "and I said: ‘You ever try to make a fool of me in front of 60,000 again, and I’ll rip your head off!’"

An on-field argument erupted, continuing into the dressing room, as the Scotsman recalls. 

"We were playing Hearts and had to get pulled apart while we were walking off the pitch at half-time," McCoist tells FourFourTwo. 

"When we came into the dressing room, we carried on rowing, but Gazza didn’t know the manager as well as I did. Walter’s temper was equal to Sir Alex Ferguson’s and then some. Gazza just wouldn’t shut up, but I knew better than that. 

"Walter told him to sit down and be quiet, but Gazza wouldn’t. Within a couple of seconds, Walter had him hanging from one of the clothing pegs and his wee legs were dangling! I was sat there laughing like a naughty schoolboy. To be fair to Gascoigne, he went out in the second half and scored twice. He was fantastic."

Indeed, Gazza scored two goals of his own, in the 64th and 66th minutes, to stop any chance of their Edinburgh rivals from taking the game to extra-time. Despite their fracas, both players even linked up for the final goal of Rangers' win, a sharp one-two on the edge of the box that the Englishman neatly finished off. 

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