Football on trial: How Duncan Ferguson's 'Glasgow kiss' resulted in a terrifying prison experience

The warning signs were evident even before Ferguson joined Rangers in a British-record transfer from Dundee United.

Having signed as a schoolboy, he won the Scottish Youth Cup with the Tannadice club and was only 18 when Jim McLean brought him off the bench for his debut in a 2-1 win against Rangers at Ibrox in 1990. His potential was obvious, but the fledgling striker butted heads with iconic chairman and manager McLean on more than one occasion. Ferguson was fined so frequently he complained he "was always skint, I had nothing."

Amid a smattering of appearances that season, the towering forward scored the winner against St Johnstone to send United to the Scottish Cup final, where they lost to Motherwell. The next season, Ferguson cemented his place in the starting XI.

"He was an honest, naive and immature big lad," team-mate Maurice Malpas told The Courier. "On the park he was someone you wanted on your team. He was quick, he wanted to turn and he wanted to run. He did some stupid stuff, but he was immature and just never really matured."

At 18, Ferguson broke his toe when he kicked a toilet door in anger following a fight over a woman in a Dundee pub. The other party, significantly shorter than Ferguson, said that he gave him a Glasgow kiss before the footballer could get up off his stool, explaining to The Courier: "I stuck the nut on him... I wasn’t going to wait until he stood to his full height."

In February 1991, Ferguson received his first conviction, being hit with a £100 fine for headbutting a police officer in Stirling, plus a further £25 for breach of the peace. By the time his second conviction came around - a £200 fine for punching and kicking a 19-year-old postman who was on crutches in a Stirling taxi queue - he was already making a name for himself as a prolific scorer in the top-flight.

"I can't remember him on a crutch. He swung at me a wee bit. I was daft," Ferguson told BBC Sport of the latter incident. In court, the victim denied claims that he had provoked a response from Ferguson, but admitted that he might have called the footballer's girlfriend "a trollop".

When police arrived at the taxi rank and found Ferguson standing over the injured postman, kicking and punching him, he told them, "I done it, but he was mouthing off." He said in court: "I punched him in the face because I thought he was going to hit my girlfriend, and in turn, myself. I hit him and we both fell and after I got up, I booted him in the rib cage."

Asked why he didn't walk away when the man was lying on the ground, he said: "I kicked him to keep him down. I have never walked away in my life." With the benefit of hindsight, would he act differently? "I would do the same again," he said.

Just a few months after that ruling, Ferguson was convicted for a third time. In November 1992, after a Player-of-the-Year awards ceremony, he entered a hotel bar in the quiet fishing village of Anstruther wearing, according to bar staff’s court testimony, a women’s silk glove, a clip-on earring and a flower behind his ear.

According to reports, Ferguson was buying a round of drinks when a fisherman at the bar started winding him up, eventually saying: "I’ll f*cking give you..." But before he could utter the word "trouble", Ferguson was on him, later recalling: "As he made to get up from his stool, I sensed what was coming and didn't wait. Boom. The fella slid off his stool and all hell broke loose. It was like the Wild West."

It was said in court that Ferguson, then 20, continued to punch the 29-year-old on the head before two men threw the striker out of the pub. When the police came looking for him at 4am, Ferguson was "Laid out on the sofa, rotten, stinking drunk." He was naked apart from "a pink hat someone had given me earlier…I had lipstick on, an earring and a silk glove. And nothing else."

He added: "The police took one look at me and said: ‘We’ll come back later.’ Which they did."

There was a real danger of Ferguson going to prison for that altercation, but he got off with a year’s probation. However, his off-field behaviour infuriated legendary Dundee United chief McLean, and the club publicly confirmed that he had been dropped from the squad.

"I was getting fined for daft things," Ferguson recalled on The Overlap. "I’d take the manager’s car as he’d told me to wash it, so I used to take it and drive it into a car wash, and next thing you know there are four or five of us in the car driving around Dundee. The police would stop us, it was nuts. That's what we did."

The situation grew so dire that after a match against Motherwell was postponed, the club publicly announced that Ferguson would not have been involved even if it had gone ahead.

"Other problems relating to breaches of club rules, and his refusal to accept the club's disciplinary code, which applies to the entire playing staff, are major factors [in his absence]," the statement read. "Until he provides Dundee United with a guarantee that he will adhere to these rules, he will not be considered for first-team duty. The club believes that press speculation as to Duncan Ferguson's future has not helped the situation. Regarding such speculation, the club repeats that Duncan Ferguson is not for sale."

Leeds United tabled a £1 million offer which Chelsea reportedly matched despite United’s assertion that he would not be sold. In the end, Rangers came forward with a British-record £4m offer, and the Tangerines accepted.

Ferguson’s time at Ibrox was a disaster - and not only because of the headbutt on McStay. A hamstring injury delayed his debut for the reigning Scottish champions, and the pressure was immense for a 21-year-old who was not used to the attention that the famous blue jersey attracts. His chaotic lifestyle, mixed with the physical issues, meant he missed large chunks of the season.

"A wee bit of that was my lifestyle. I was getting a lot of injuries at the time. I was a young guy, I had a few quid in my pocket, and I followed Ally McCoist and Durranty [Ian Durrant] around like a wee poodle," Ferguson told FourFourTwo. "They were established players; I was just a kid learning the trade. You get caught up in it all. You've made it before you've really made it.

"You're in the big time but, actually, I never performed on the pitch because I never had an opportunity to perform – I was never fit. It probably came a couple of years too early for me."

By the time Rangers faced relegation candidates Raith in April 1994, Ferguson had made just six league appearances for Walter Smith’s team. Rangers were 1-0 up when Ferguson and McStay began tussling for the ball outside of the visitors’ box, and as the referee blew the whistle to issue a free-kick to Raith, he turned his head away, thus missing the brutal headbutt that Ferguson planted on McStay’s face.

Despite the blood and the protests, Ferguson stayed on the field and scored his first Rangers goal early in the second half. He was shown a yellow card for his overzealous celebration.

The headbutt incident was plastered all over the news and tabloids in the days that followed. “You nutter”, one headline read.

Despite no complaint from McStay or Raith, the prosecutor fiscal decided to charge Ferguson, who was still on probation. The Scottish Football Association subsequently announced that he would be hit with a 12-match ban - the heaviest ever doled out for a single incident.

Rangers boss Smith was outraged. "We were not asked about it afterwards," he told The Scotsman. "It was a completely nothing incident. The ref played on, never did anything about it. And then it blew up, and ended with Duncan going to court. Which to my mind was one of the most ludicrous things. It was the kind of thing that happens in football matches all over the place."

Everton offered an escape route, and Smith told the forward a move was the best possible outcome. "He had to get away," the manager said.

"I cried my eyes out when he said it," Ferguson recalled. "I'd let him down. He was telling me I was coming back after the loan and I'm sure he was genuine at the time. But I cried. I'd failed. I was drinking heavier. I was out of control."

Ferguson joined the Toffees on loan under Mike Walker, but it was under Joe Royle he truly blossomed, as he orchestrated a 2-0 win in Royle’s first game against a Liverpool team that contained Ian Rush, Robbie Fowler, John Barnes and Steve McManaman.

Incredibly, Ferguson had been caught drink-driving just days before. "On my own. Middle of the city centre. Saturday night. What do you do? I went for a drink, stupidly. We've got a game on the Monday against Liverpool and I'm out on a Saturday night. Nuts… I'm in the police station, 3am Sunday. Liverpool on Monday. The star striker's in the nick," he said.

Everton went on to win the FA Cup in 1995, beating Manchester United 1-0 at Wembley. That same month, Ferguson was sentenced to three months in prison for headbutting McStay.

Since released by Raith, McStay had jumped from club to club and gave his occupation as "painter and decorator" in court. He testified the incident was an accidental "clash of heads", not an intentional assault, to the point that the judge warned of a perjury charge based on his earlier statement to police.

McStay later told The Scotsman: "In one of the photographs, you can see my hair flying back. And people say he didn’t touch me!… I was dropped like a brick. I was treated like damaged goods, through no fault of my own."

He added: "No one knows I had [depression]. No one apart from my wife really knows. I was on medication for 18 years. It changed me, put it that way. I am not blaming the headbutt. Things happen in life. Getting divorced as well. I stopped playing football at the same time. Everything just happened. Things happen in life you cannot handle. But I lost a bit of belief, hope. I could not handle not being at Raith Rovers anymore."

In a podcast years later, Ferguson downplayed the incident, saying: "It was a nothing incident. I’m telling you straight. I never touched the lad. I basically grazed him. If I had hit him, I’d have hit him. We played on. Both of us played on. I scored in the game!"

Ferguson appealed the sentence and started the 1995-96 campaign with Everton, but in October he was ordered to return to Scotland to serve his sentence. "I was upset. I was worried. I was frightened. Of course I was," he told BBC Sport. "But I was also a wee bit excited to see what the nick was like. Because I was young and stupid.

"You've seen the movies, haven't you? You've seen movies of prisons and you think, what's it like to be in there? So there was a wee bit of that, maybe not excitement, but certainly I was intrigued to what was actually going to happen in there."

That feeling didn’t last long, however, as during the first night, Ferguson "realised it was hell". "Sitting at the end of that bed. Everything echoed. They're screaming at you. 'You're going to get cut in the morning'. That's what happened," he explained

"They pinpoint where you are. It was like they were focusing on me. You're worried sick. You've got to face that in the morning. I never slept a wink all night. I was terrified. I'm going to walk out on this landing in the morning and you think someone's going to stick a knife in you.

"You think you're a man, don't you? I thought I was a man. I've got everything boxed-off. I was just a baby."

Ferguson considered the SFA’s lack of support a betrayal, feeling that chief executive Jim Farry had prejudiced the case by issuing such a massive ban, which was later overturned. In Everton boss Royle, though, he found a sympathetic and understanding figure who visited him in the infamous Scottish prison.

"We are all amazed and stunned and can't really believe, in a society that seems dedicated to keeping people out of prison, that we are putting away a young man who is in a good job and is no danger to society," Royle said of the sentence. "Anyone who knows him will tell you he is a very pleasant young man. He is no bad lad at all. He has been guilty sometimes of stupidity, but mostly immaturity. We all see events on football pitches every week and they are a lot worse than what Duncan now finds himself imprisoned with hardened criminals for."

Everton chairman Peter Johnson wrote a letter to the court in support of the player’s appeal, describing him as "one of the most popular players ever to wear an Everton shirt".

On December 8, 1995, over 10,000 fans turned up to watch a game between Everton's reserves and their counterparts from Newcastle. Complete with a bagpipe band, they gave Ferguson a hero's welcome back to Merseyside following his prison stay, and he responded with two goals and an assist in a 5-0 win.

A few days later, he made his Premier League return with substitute appearances against West Ham and Newcastle, going on to finish the campaign with five league goals.

Even with his freedom restored, the fallout from the sentence lingered. The SFA attempted to enforce their original 12-match ban on top of the 44 days Ferguson had just served in Barlinnie - a move the player and Everton fought in court. Ferguson viewed the SFA’s stance as vindictive and refused to ever play for Scotland again, having made just eight senior appearances.

"So basically what happened is I'd been into the jug, right? I did the seven weeks or the three months. I'd missed X amount of games. I came out and then the SFA asked me to serve another 12-game ban on top of what I'd already done," he recalled. "It was never enough for them. So I had to then go to courts and fight my case and say: 'Look, this is like double jeopardy' or whatever its called. I've been to prison, I've done a bit of bird, I've lost a lot of games and they want me committing to another 12 games on top. So, I actually won my case. I never served their games."

There were many calls for Ferguson to return to the Scotland squad under Craig Brown and later ex-Rangers boss Smith, but due to his own "pig-headedness", Ferguson never reconsidered, much to his regret: "I should have been playing 200 times for Scotland, you know? They asked me every bloody year for 14 years. They asked me every year until I was 34."

While the attacker found stability and adoration at Everton, making over 270 appearances across two spells at Goodison Park, that violent streak was still there. The forward was always on edge and ready to start flinging fists and boots at opponents, and by the time he called time on his career, he had been sent off eight times in the English top-flight - the joint-most in league history. With six straight red cards, he holds the outright record.

"The fans took to me," he told BBC Sport. "There was never any trouble off the pitch, only the drink-driving offence. They needed somebody like me at the club. The team wasn't very good. They had a good tradition of big Scottish number nines. I fitted that mould.”

"I was aggressive. The fans liked that. They wanted somebody to get stuck in for them. It all turned for me then. You're playing against Liverpool, Man United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Tottenham. You're playing against some serious teams. It brought the best out of me."

There was more to Ferguson than aggression, though. He was a prolific and respected goal-scorer who was a real pain for the likes of Manchester United, scoring seven times against Sir Alex Ferguson's side in total, as well as Everton's local rivals Liverpool across his many years on Merseyside.

After two years with Newcastle, with whom he reached another FA Cup final, Ferguson returned to Everton to reunite with ex-Rangers boss Smith in the summer of 2000. The following January, Ferguson was relaxing at the home he shared with his wife and young daughter when he noticed a strange commotion. Lying on the couch with no shirt on at one o’clock in the morning, the 29-year-old went to inspect.

Like a cat watching its pray frolic in blissful ignorance; Ferguson said that he was calm. But as the first intruder entered his home, he pounced.

"I went forward and didn't give the boys a chance, really, they never knew what hit them," he later remembered of the incident, during which the second burglar ran away.

"My wife was upstairs with a three-month old baby. It's 1am in the morning, she's shouting out the window. She's hearing 'thud, thud, thud' and shouting: 'You're going to f*cking kill him, stop!' But you've got the mist. Then you look down and think: 'Oh my God'."

Ferguson beat one burglar so badly he had to perform CPR until the ambulance and police came. "I unloaded, I really did," he said on Tony Bellew’s podcast. "I really followed in to the point where I thought I'd killed him, I really did. I had to try and resuscitate him then. So you go from a point of unloading on the fella to helping him. It happened in a matter of seconds."

Ferguson recounted the story to his team-mates in the Everton dressing room and was asked 'When did you stop hitting them?' Ferguson said: "Well, just when they stopped moving." The burglar, Barry Dawson, had to spend three days in hospital while he and partner in crime, Michael Pratt, were sentenced to 15 months in prison.

Around two years later, at 8pm one January evening, Ferguson was going to use his personal gym when he came across another burglar who had broken onto his Formby property. Ferguson punched and wrestled him to the ground, only for the offender to attempt to hit him with a vodka bottle.

"I ducked down and lashed out with my fist and struck him on the side of the face," Ferguson told police. "My body followed through and I fell onto him and we both landed on the floor. He stopped struggling and I damaged my knee and was winded."

By the end of the fracas, 37-year-old Carl Bishop had a broken jaw and three missing teeth, resulting in a two-day hospital stay. Although Bishop was convicted, he accused Ferguson of assaulting him, sparking a new investigation by Merseyside Police. The Scot was quickly cleared of all charges as authorities recognised he was protecting his home and family, seeing "no evidence to suggest that he acted unreasonably". Bishop, meanwhile, was sentenced to four years in prison.

A few years later, Ferguson hung up his boots and went on to become a coach, including two spells as Everton's interim boss before heading on to Forest Green Rovers and Inverness. He was recently appointed manager of Northern Irish side Glentoran.

His impulsive, aggressive actions are a thing of the past, we hope, but they have not been forgotten. In the end, the very traits that the legal system tried to quell made Ferguson a deity on Merseyside. A repeat offender in his homeland, Evertonians saw an authentic anti-hero who gave everything for the shirt, who fought to win on the pitch with the same ferociousness with which he defended his home.

He retired with a record number of Premier League red cards and a reputation as the most feared target man of his generation. Yet the frightened youngster who entered the infamous Barlinnie prison emerged as a man of immense loyalty. He was a terror to defenders and unlucky burglars alike, but to many fans, especially the Toffees' faithful, the man affectionately known as 'Duncan Disorderly' is one of their own.