Scott Brown ribs Ally McCoist as Rangers hero ‘set up’ by Jim White in Celtic legend’s hilarious guest radio appearance
White put Brown and McCoist on the spot over the latter's infamous touchline spat with Neil Lennon.
Scott Brown was the talksSPORT studio guest but it was Ally McCoist hit with a surprise set up by colleague Jim White.
The former Celtic skipper and current Ayr United boss joined McCoist and Andy Townsend live from Ayr Racecourse ahead of the Scottish Grand National on Saturday. And the questions inevitably turned to Celtic and Rangers and this season's title race. But White had pre-recorded his own query for Brown during the Q&A section, and put him on the spot over McCoist's infamous touchline spat with Neil Lennon after a 2011 Scottish Cup replay.
The bad tempered Parkhead clash even sparked a Government summit chaired by then First Minister Alex Salmond after the two bosses had an angry exchange that got physical, with both sets of coaching staff getting involved. Unbeknown to McCoist, White quizzed Brown on the incident which raised a chuckle from the record Ibrox goalscorer, who immediately played it down.
White: "You played in many Old Firm games. What were some of the craziest moments and what was your take on the famous McCoist Lennon touchline tiff?
McCoist: "Hahaha! I didn't know I was getting set up Broony! I didn't know I was getting set up!"
Brown: "To be fair I quite enjoyed it - you took the pressure off me for once! I can't believe the two of you didn;t get a red card for that. But you kissed and made up?"
McCoist: "Oh aye. We had a bottle of beer right after it."
Brown: "That's a good thing. That's what it's all about. You play for 90 minutes and you try and win. As a manager is the exact same. You give a little bit, you take a little bit and after it you should be going away and having beers and that.
"People never really understood it. Whitts (Steven Whittaker) and Thommo (Kevin Thommo) were my best mates and there was one of these times we went away with Scotland straight after the Old Firm game. We all jumped in the same car. I've got a Celtic trackie on and they've got Rangers stuff on.
"And there's people going: 'Broony, whit are you daein' wae them?!' And I was thinking: 'Aye, you're spot on actually!' But we'd been mates since we were 11, 12-years old all the way through."
As for the current title race, Brown - like most after Rangers' last two results - sees Celtic as strong favourites. But it's in-house changes rather than Gers stumbling which have been the biggest help to Brendan Rodgers.
"100 per cent it's advantage Celtic," he said. "At the end of the season, it doesn't matter how you've played, it's about getting those results on the board.
"What's helped Celtic is that Callum McGregor's back, Cameron Carter-Vickers is back and Reo Hatate is back as well. You see Kyogo starting to hit a little bit of form again and that's the core of their team back together.
"Whoever plays beside Carter-Vickers looks by far a better defender. That's because he reads the game well, you can leave him one-v-one, he's good on the ball. He's pretty much got everything; he's got a great leap, he can bully players and Cal coming in there as well keeps it ticking over. Hatate has quality as well."