Ally McCoist is a Scottish footballing legend, playing 61 times for a country which has produced some of the greatest football managers of all-time. McCoist had the privilege of working with some of them.
His first call-up for the national team was under Jock Stein in 1985. He would make his debut the following year against the Netherlands in a 0-0 friendly, but as the squad new boy was a target for established international duty prankers.
“I was a young boy, a bag of nerves,” McCoist explains to FourFourTwo recalling his first international camp. “We trained, then went for a cup of coffee after lunch.
‘I can still feel the fear running through my body’
“Alan Hansen was having a coffee and I said, ‘I’ll have the same’. Just as Jock Stein walked in, Kenny Dalglish put a pint of lager down in front of me.
“I can still feel the fear running right through my body – for a minute and a half, I can remember the feeling of, ‘That man is going to kill me, this is my first and last Scotland trip’. But Big Jock was in on the gag. They were all in on it and had this whole thing planned!”
Sadly for McCoist, and Scotland, Stein would die later that year at the conclusion of a 1986 World Cup qualifying game vs Wales. Davie Cooper scored late to earn a draw and a qualification play-off vs Australia (which they would go on to win).
But Stein, who was aged 62, had been under immense pressure and had stopped taking his medication for heart disease so as to not have the side effects impact on the match preparation. He died shortly after the game had finished in the Ninian Park medical room.
“One thing I remember about Jock was the respect and aura he carried with him,” says McCoist, who later won the European Golden Shoe with Rangers in 1992 and 1993. “He was physically imposing, but not aggressive. I was very lucky to work with some of the best.”
