Ally McCoist: Not quite paradise but I like it

McCoist positively enthused over going behind enemy lines – even as the primary source of enmity. It was put to the Ibrox club’s manager that he would no longer be “under the radar” after stepping up from assistant under Walter Smith. It may have temporarily slipped the enquirer’s mind that McCoist was hardly under the radar in his last nerve-jangling experience of occupying the away technical area. His eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation with Neil Lennon on leaving the dug-out at full time of his side’s Scottish Cup defeat ten months ago became the defining image of last season – and a piece of video footage replayed endlessly on news channels genuinely in all corners of the planet.

On top of that, there is the small matter of the 15 years of matches at Parkhead as a player, when Celtic followers grew to despise the striker because of his endless capacity for netting there. That knack allowed him to rack up a post-war record of 27 goals in the fixture. McCoist isn’t expecting the reaction from the home stands to his presence in their backyard to change because he is now the leader of their bitter adversaries.

“Surely you are not going to tell me it is going to get worse?” he said. “I would have to say I’d be surprised if the atmosphere is anything other than what I normally get there. But I have to tell you the people within Celtic Park are great. We get a great reception from all, and not just the footballing staff. I have been to a couple of games recently and been made nothing other than very welcome. I am sure once I get outside and into the arena it will just be the same. I will be disappointed if it is anything other than hostile, like I normally get. That is fine.”

Sometimes the hostility can be presented in a curiously unthreatening manner. McCoist remembers being accosted by a “boy from the Boston or New York Celtic Supporters club” at an airport once. “He said to me: ‘I want you to take this as a compliment’. I said ‘aye sure’ and he said: ‘Our supporters call you the anti-Christ’. And you know something, I think he did mean it as a compliment. Generally speaking, supporters don’t ignore people who had the capability of damaging them on the field.”

Celtic Park is, for McCoist, “one of the great places to play”. He remembers scoring the first time he played there, for Scotland under-18s in 1980-81. As he did that season when making a debut appearance for St Johnstone at the ground. His Rangers career followed that pattern and 33 seconds into his first derby in the east end of the city he found the net. That September day ended with him on the losing side and he said: “I have some good memories and not so good memories but it is a great place to go.”

His current Rangers side are proving a better away side than they are at home. “There is no doubt about that,” said McCoist. Three points have been dropped away from home, in the form of defeat at Kilmarnock, while six have been shipped at Ibrox by dint of three draws. “Celtic will definitely attack us and maybe we enjoy it when teams have a bit more impetus. Maybe it suits us better,” added McCoist. And maybe the intensity of a derby is also to the liking of his side with their 4-2 win in the teams’ first meeting a result of their best performance of the season. And, even if it is no great pointer to the outcome next week, McCoist isn’t dismissive of the fact that his managerial record in the Glasgow derby is played won, won one.

“I am not going to sit here and say it takes any pressure off,” he said. “But I won’t lie, I am a lot happier having had a win.

“We will go and have a right go on on the 28th and try to make it two wins in a row against Celtic.”

Now that is a target which, both as a player and assistant manager at Rangers, he has form for playing his part in achieving.