Thompson spills on 'shame game'

Much ado about nothing...

ALAN THOMPSON has revealed what was said between Ally McCoist and Neil Lennon during their touchline rammy back in 2011.

The shame game between Celtic and Rangers was full of controversy before the full-time whistle and had three red cards, 13 cautions and 34 fans were arrested by police.

Upon the full-time whistle Gers assistant McCoist clashed with Lennon on the touchline and to this day fans have wondered what was said between the two.

Thompson was alongside Lennon on the touchline that day and discussing the moment, he told The Sun: “One of the main talking points of that season was the Lenny v McCoist battle.

"The first game at Ibrox was a classic which ended 2-2.

“It was a great result for us because we finished the game with ten men with big Fraser Forster getting sent off.

“That game was also the birth of ‘The Broony’ which became a very iconic celebration as Scott Brown scored and stood with his hands in the air directly in front of El Hadji Diouf, almost face to face.

“Scotty said afterwards that it was the best yellow card he had ever received in his whole career!

“The Scottish Cup fifth round replay was back at ours and if the first had been ill-tempered, then this was to be known as ‘the shame game’ — with players almost getting locked up by the police off the pitch and a few red cards thrown in for good measure.

“Rangers defenders Madjid Bougherra and Steven Whittaker both saw red with Diouf getting up to his old tricks and he saw red also.

“The game from start to finish was absolute mayhem. It’s not as if these games are normally good-tempered but this was extra spiteful.

“McCoist at the time pointed the finger at Lenny regarding what happened between them.

"He said Lenny acted over-aggressively, which wasn’t the case in my opinion, and I broke them up.

“What really started it off was Diouf gave our physiotherapist a hard shoulder and it escalated from there.

“Brown took a few kicks and Kris Commons got clattered in front of our dugout, which sent our emotions sky high.

“All the way through the game Diouf was dishing out verbals on everyone in a hooped shirt and even directed a few to myself and Lenny on the sidelines.

“Don’t forget it was Lenny and me opposing him exactly eight years previously when Celtic played against Liverpool in the Uefa Cup match at Parkhead — and he infamously spat at Celtic fans.

“You look at Diouf and he was pretty decent.

"The guy had been with some good clubs but in my opinion the only reason Rangers brought him in on loan was to wind the Celtic fans up.

“He was brought in by Rangers for the shock value.

“Diouf was ‘on one’ that night and I told him many times to ‘do one’ away from our area as he was constantly trying to sneak in closer to our area to noise us up.

“When the final whistle blew, and we had won the game, all the staff went over to shake hands with the opposing team as you do, and Lenny went to shake Coisty’s hand.

“I was stood so close that I clearly heard Ally tell Lenny, ‘And don’t you be speaking to my f***ing players like that’, only for Lenny to tell him, ‘They’re not your f***ing players, they’re Walter’s.

“It’s never been disclosed what was actually said in over a decade now — but I’m telling you that was the spark that lit the fire and Hell was hot.

“Lenny was right because Walter was the gaffer and Ally was only the No 2 at that time. Ally didn’t take well to that.

“The Rangers boys were all trying to say it was our fault but any team who receives three red cards in one match need to have a long hard look at themselves."