A half-time argument was quickly quelled, after Gazza ended up hanging from a peg
(Image credit: Getty Images)
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.
Rangers ended up winning the Scottish League Cup, despite the pair's argument (Image credit: Getty Images)
“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.
Walter Smith resolved the situation by hanging Gazza from a peg (Image credit: Getty Images)
"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.
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"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.
Ryan is a staff writer for FourFourTwo, joining the team full-time in October 2022. He first joined Future in December 2020, working across FourFourTwo, Golf Monthly, Rugby World and Advnture's websites, before eventually earning himself a position with FourFourTwo permanently. After graduating from Cardiff University with a degree in Journalism and Communications, Ryan earned a NCTJ qualification to further develop as a writer while a Trainee News Writer at Future.
