Ally McCoist is a Scottish footballing legend, taking part in 61 instances for a rustic which has produced a few of the best soccer managers of all-time. McCoist had the privilege of working with a few of them.
His first call-up for the nationwide workforce was below Jock Stein in 1985. He would make his debut the next yr in opposition to the Netherlands in a 0-0 pleasant, however because the squad new boy was a goal for established worldwide responsibility prankers.
“I used to be a younger boy, a bag of nerves,” McCoist explains to FourFourTwo recalling his first worldwide camp. “We educated, then went for a cup of espresso after lunch.
‘I can nonetheless really feel the worry working by my physique’
“Alan Hansen was having a espresso and I stated, ‘I’ll have the identical’. Simply as Jock Stein walked in, Kenny Dalglish put a pint of lager down in entrance of me.
“I can nonetheless really feel the worry working proper by my physique – for a minute and a half, I can bear in mind the sensation of, ‘That man goes to kill me, that is my first and final Scotland journey’. However Large Jock was in on the gag. They had been all in on it and had this entire factor deliberate!”
Sadly for McCoist, and Scotland, Stein would die later that yr on the conclusion of a 1986 World Cup qualifying recreation vs Wales. Davie Cooper scored late to earn a draw and a qualification play-off vs Australia (which they’d go on to win).
However Stein, who was aged 62, had been below immense strain and had stopped taking his medicine for coronary heart illness in order to not have the uncomfortable side effects influence on the match preparation. He died shortly after the sport had completed within the Ninian Park medical room.
