‘The ball came to Ian Durrant, and Graeme Souness smashed him. Durranty said ‘Is that your best?’ Souness said ‘No, this is’ – bang! Then we were all into it, a good old-fashioned scrap!’: Ally McCoist on the training ground fights that were ENCOURAGED

Ally McCoist scored an incredible 355 goals during 15 years as a Rangers player – and he witnessed some dramatic moments behind the scenes, too.

McCoist had already been at Ibrox for three years when Graeme Souness arrived as player-manager in 1986, fresh from several seasons of glory with Liverpool.

Souness signed a number of Englishmen during his reign – so many that five-a-side training games on Fridays were divided into England and Scotland. It was a potential recipe for aggro…

Ally McCoist reveals story of crazy bust-up

Controversially, despite being Scottish, Souness – already widely known as being a particularly feisty character – would line up against his own country during those training matches.

“Graeme used to play with England, which drove us mental,” McCoist says, speaking at the launch of his new book Dear Scotland, celebrating some of his favourite memories and stories from his time in the Scottish game.

“But they could never beat us, even though they had Terry Butcher, Chris Woods, Graham Roberts, Souness.

“We were beating them one Friday and taking the mickey, ‘Ole!’ and all that stuff. I could see Graeme getting angrier and angrier.

“The ball came to Ian Durrant, and Graeme smashed him. Durranty got up, put his foot on the ball and said ‘Is that your best?’ Graeme said ‘No, this is’ – bang! Then we were all into it, a free for all, a good old-fashioned scrap! Walter Smith was Graeme’s assistant, running about with a whistle going ‘Beep! Beep!’”

Most managers would be furious at the prospect of a training ground bust-up, but in this case, Souness had rather caused the incident himself.

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Far from being angry, he actually told his players that he was pleased with how it all turned out.

“Graeme came into the dressing room afterwards and we were thinking ‘What’s he going to say? Fighting the day before a game, he’s going to be raging’,” McCoist remembers.

“He said ‘That’s exactly the spirit I’m looking for’. I’m sitting there with a big fillet steak over my eye, Durranty’s got an ice pack on his knee…”

Souness would enjoy great success with that squad of players as Rangers manager, winning three league titles.

Dear Scotland by Ally McCoist, published by Hodder, is available now, for £22