Duncan Ferguson: I was stitched up by press after 'headbutt' on Raith Rovers star

The incident, during a Rangers v Raith Rovers match at Ibrox Stadium on April 16, 1994, is highlighted in Ferguson’s newly released autobiography ‘Big Dunc’.

Recounting the clash with McStay on Gary Lineker’s ‘The Rest Is Football’ podcast, Ferguson, 53, said: "At that time I was on probation for these fat lips and black eyes I collared when I was younger between 16 and 19. I got myself in two or three situations at taxi ranks and at pool tables.

"My last offence was in a fishing village in Anstruther, I got into a fight with some fishermen. I went to court and the judge put me on probation because I was running a bit wild.

"That meant if I committed another offence within the next two years I was potentially going to prison. Obviously I didn’t think that was going to happen on a football pitch.

"But at Ibrox I tussled for the ball and collided with John McStay, which was a headbutt but it was not a forced headbutt. We connected, I put my head forward, he went down, as you would do because he felt the force.

"The referee comes up, there’s no yellow card, they get a free-kick, we play on, nothing is said. I think I scored my first goal for Rangers that day.

"After the game the press then say to McStay: ‘All the Rangers boys in there are saying you cheated’.

"He said he never dived, I did connect with him, he was not a cheat.

"So they (the press) had their headline. The next day it says: ‘Big Dunc headbutted me’. It was all over the papers, all over the news.

"A procurator fiscal must have watched it on the television at night and he then knew I was on probation. So he then called the police to investigate this situation, this assault at Ibrox.

"So the guy I assaulted never complained, the 40,000 fans in the stadium witnessing this assault, never complained, 200 police at Ibrox never complained, nobody.

"So that’s why I felt it was unfair on me.

"They banned me for 12 games prior to the court case so I felt that was prejudging me and unfair.

"It just snowballed from there. I got charged for the offence and I realised then that this could possibly end in prison for me.”

When asked to explain what his subsequent stint in prison – he served around seven weeks for good behaviour – was like, Ferguson added: “Barlinnie is horrible looking. You’re petrified just looking at the place.

"It was not easy to go in there as a young man on my own. There was a lot of sectarianism. I had played for Rangers, I was also a Premier League player as I had moved to Everton by then.

"It was frightening hearing people shouting that they wanted to slash you and cut you to pieces, calling me a ‘big orange b…..d’.

"They pinpointed my cell very quickly. I couldn’t sleep at night because I was thinking what was going to happen to me in the morning.”