The match in question was the Hampden showdown between Rangers and Hearts in 1996, which the Ibrox side won 5-1 thanks to a Gordon Durie hat-trick and Brian Laudrup brace.

McCoist was a doubt for the match due to a calf injury but after passing a pre-match fitness test at 10am he was named in the matchday squad among the substitutes.

However, just minutes before kick-off, the striker felt his calf go again, leaving an unimpressed Walter Smith with only two fit replacements on the bench back in the days of three subs.

Rangers players celebrate winning the 1996 Scottish Cup.

McCoist was then instructed to drag Ian Durrant out of the Hampden hospitality suites to tell him he would be taking his place on the bench in a last-minute change.

There was one problem, though. Durrant had been drinking.

Speaking on talkSPORT, McCoist recalled: "It was the Scottish Cup final, we were playing Hearts and I was touch and go with an injury. I had to do a fitness test 10am at Ibrox, we were playing Hearts at Hampden.

"I promise you, I was 100 per cent right, it was a calf and you can't mess about with that but there was nothing. Walter reads the team out and I'm on the bench.

"I'm out for a warm up with the others and ten to three my calf goes pop. I was devastated, swear to God, see if it had been a knock or a kick I'd have played no bother, but when a calf goes you've had it.

"I got back in and said 'Walter, I've done my calf'. There was no sympathy. He looks at me and says 'oh have you? 'Beat it'. Archie Knox says 'you'll have to go upstairs and see Durranty'.

"So I go upstairs and Durrant says: 'I'm on my second can of Boddingtons'. And I am deadly serious about this, the wee man had the audacity to finish his second can. But he came down, came on for the last few minutes and was brilliant."

Ally McCoist reveals Rangers team-mate who played Scottish Cup final after two cans of beer

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