Stuart McCall joins Scotland’s Euro Stories with Sunsport and Superscoreboard

WHEN Stuart McCall tunes into the Euros, he’ll recall a famous TV interview about Gazza and a bizarre ban on his beloved Coronation Street.

But the Scotland record-breaker believes the big picture in this tournament must be a place in the knockout stages.

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No Scot has played more games at European Championship finals than McCall.

He started all six games at Euro 92 in Sweden and Euro 96 in England.

It’s a record he proudly shares with Gary McAllister and the late, great Andy Goram.

Scotland earned seven points over the two tourneys — and still couldn’t get past the groups.

But the memories flood back for the ex-Rangers star, including his battle with Ibrox team-mate Paul Gascoigne in the 2-0 defeat to England at Wembley 28 years ago.

McCall, 59, said: “I’m not one for going to have a chat with the opposition before a game. I try to be fully focused.

“I could see Coisty speaking to Gazza before that game.

“Darren Jackson, who played with Gazza at Newcastle, was speaking to him too.

“Colin Hendry was up against Alan Shearer, who he played with at Blackburn.

“Colin Calderwood was up against Teddy Sheringham, who he played with at Spurs.

“There were lots of little duels on the pitch.

“Me and Gazza changed next to each other at Rangers for nearly three years.

“I remember I’d done an interview on TV the night before the game.

“I said my little girl wanted a 3-3 draw with me to get a hat-trick and Gazza to get one too.

“As I was walking to the dressing room at half-time, I heard this rapping of studs on concrete.

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“It was Gazza. Now, I hadn’t spoken to him before or during the game.

“He gave me his shirt and said, ‘That’s for your little girl’ — and he carried on running.

“He had seen the interview the night before. I hadn’t even asked for it.

“I stuffed the shirt in my bag and didn’t say anything to anyone.

“Of course, we went back out and England scored then David Seaman saved the penalty from Gary.

“What people don’t remember is that Terry Venables had Gazza’s number up before the penalty and was ready to bring him off.

“Our coaching team had seen it. But Gazza stayed on and went on to score the greatest goal in the tournament.

“People still ridicule me for letting Gazza run. But I thought, ‘He’s just given me his shirt at half-time so I’ll give him a bit of freedom!’.

“But no, we had three centre-halves at the back marking Shearer. The rest is history.

“We were gutted getting back on the bus to go back up to the Midlands for the last game against Switzerland. We still had an outside chance to qualify.

“We were sat at the back of the bus. Coisty said, ‘I’m disappointed but at least I got something out of the game’.

“He pulled Gazza’s shirt out of his bag.

“I reacted with disgust. I said, ‘That’s disgraceful. What do you think you’re doing?’.

“I said, ‘You’ve gone and taken a player’s shirt who scored the goal against us that’s probably knocked us out of the tournament’.

“The lads were a bit shocked and Coisty said, ‘Don’t be silly’.

“Somebody said, ‘You’re just annoyed because you didn’t get one’. I said, ‘Oh didn’t I?’. I dived into my bag and said, ‘No — I got the one he DIDN’T score against us in!’”

McCall had starred in the historic 3-0 win over the CIS at Euro 92, after group losses to defending champions Netherlands and reigning world champions Germany.

Four years later, he also started the Villa Park draw with the Dutch and 1-0 win over the Swiss.

He recalls rooming with John Collins, who got away with handling the ball on his own goal-line in the stalemate against Netherlands.

McCall recalled: “Wee John and I roomed together. I was at Everton and he was at Hibs.

“We’d watch television in our room and every time the adverts came on he would do press-ups and sit-ups.

“I got fed up with it and even though Coronation Street was my favourite at the time, I made sure we watched BBC1 all night so he couldn’t do them! He was a machine.”

McCall returned for more national service as No 2 to Gordon Strachan.

They worked with several of the stars Steve Clarke will take to Germany this month.

And he has high hopes they can achieve the success he was so cruelly denied in the 90s.

He said: “Andy Robertson came in, Grant Hanley was there and John McGinn was breaking in from the Under-21s.

“I think we also had Callum McGregor, James Forrest and Kieran Tierney in the squad. Tierney plays really well at left centre-back and Robertson at left wing-back. It’s worked well.

“We’re not in the greatest form going in but these guys have a chance to go further than any Scottish player ever has.

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“There will be thousands of Scots over there. There’s the opportunity to go far.

“You need everyone available so Nathan Patterson, Aaron Hickey and Lewis Ferguson being out is unfortunate.

“I go back to the last Euros. I was at both Hampden games. The 12,500 inside sounded like 50,000 but to lose both home games was the killer.

“We were the only team England didn’t score against. Billy Gilmour came to prominence that night at Wembley.

“There was an expectation again after that but it fell so flat. Luka Modric was outstanding in that last game against Croatia.

“Steve and the lads will look back on it as a missed opportunity but now they have another opportunity to make history — and they can do it.”

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