FORMER Rangers player Lee McCulloch has revealed that manager Walter Smith threw a teapot at the dressing room wall during a fiery post-match tirade.
McCulloch spent eight years at Ibrox between 2007 and 2015, working under Smith for the first four seasons.
A humiliating 2-1 defeat to Lithuanian minnows FBK Kaunas in August 2008 saw the Gers dumped out of the Champions League at the second qualifying round and the 39-year-old recalled being ‘petrified’ at Smith’s post-match reaction.
Speaking to Open Goal, he said: “I was sitting next to Kevin Thomson when we got put out of the Champions League qualifying stages away to Kaunas.
“My head was nearly between my knees in case I got eye contact with (Smith) and he started on me.
“He went through Thommo that day, really went through him.
“He picked up a teapot and turned round and threw it off a wall, and it missed Jimmy Bell by about an inch! I was petrified, absolutely petrified.”
When asked about whether the managerial great had a fear factor for the players, McCulloch replied: “Even in training, you just knew if you got a stare.
WATCH: TONIGHT @ 5PM Episode 1 with Lee McCulloch. Lee tells Si about the most angry he ever saw Walter Smith and it was at the expense of our former guest @KThomsonAcademy! ⚽️☕️🤬 pic.twitter.com/wbWjccM1S6
— Open Goal (@opengoalsport) December 4, 2017
“If you’d go out training, his backroom staff would take the warm-up and everybody would be joking about.
“As soon as he came out, everyone was like ‘the manager’s here, we need to get our heads down’.
“That was the presence he had. And when he walked into the dressing room, everybody just shut up and looked at him.”
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