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Walter Smith's angry reaction to Celtic vs Rangers agro

Walter Smith's angry reaction to Celtic vs Rangers agro

The National5 days ago

In a game that has gone down in history with three red cards, 13 yellows and 34 fans arrested at Celtic Park for the Scottish Cup derby encounter between the teams on March 2, 2011, it is also widely remembered as the time Lenny and McCoist went head-to-head in an angry exchange.
As the full-time whistle sounded on a dramatic evening in Glasgow's east end, the respective club legends locked horns, with TV cameras picking up the pair squaring up to each other.
The match resulted in Scottish government intervention in the days that followed the cup replay, with the Hoops emerging victorious courtesy of a Mark Wilson goal.
Speaking on Open Goal, Lennon has delivered his version of events, as he claimed the rammy began after nasty antics from El Hadji Diouf.
And it was in this chat with Si Ferry that Lennon revealed what Scottish football legend Smith - Rangers manager at the time - thought of it all.
"El Hadji Diouf started it all," Lenny said. "Emilio Izaguirre got injured after Steven Whittacker caught him in a foul, got a second yellow and was sent off.
"Diouf came over to get instructions when Tim Williamson was running onto treat Emilio.
"Diouf gives him one of them (motions an elbow). I clocked it and said 'you f*****g leave my staff alone'.
"Coisty then came on to say 'don't talk to my players'. So, that was the start of it really, then it got really spicy in the game. We won 1-0, they had three men sent off.
"I shook hands with Walter, then he goes. Coisty said 'don't speak to my players like that,' and I f*****g snapped.
"The normal thing to do is to shake hands and leave it, but I said 'is that right?'"
Asked about Smith's reaction, he continued: "He was amazing. He gave us both a bollocking afterwards in my office - he told us to behave ourselves!
"He was brilliant. I loved him. I had a lot of respect for him, he was a brilliant manager. Really, really smart."

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