Andy Goram: ‘The Goalie’ who fought demons as he became Rangers’ best

Andy Goram “lived to keep the ball out of the goal”, according to his former Rangers manager, Walter Smith.

Smith had previously put the man voted as Rangers’ best goalkeeper on the transfer list for lacking professionalism.

But Goram went on to win Smith round again and the former Oldham, Hibernian and Manchester United keeper, who has died at the age of 58 after a short battle with cancer, will go down as one of Scottish football’s greatest shot-stoppers.

Andrew Lewis Goram was born in Bury on April 13, 1964. His Scottish father, Lewis – a Rangers fan who played in goal for Hibs and Bury – was the driving force behind his career.

Goram represented Scotland seven times at cricket while with Hibs and he might have focused on the former sport earlier. He joined West Brom as an apprentice the same week as joining the ground staff at Lancashire Cricket Club, having captained his county’s schoolboy side.

Although he was released by new West Brom boss Ronnie Allen for being too small, the 5ft 11in goalkeeper opted for football as a career after joining Oldham and making his first-team debut at the age of 16. He established himself as number one under Joe Royle and would go on to be voted in the Second Division’s team of the year by his fellow professionals in 1987.

The breakthrough in his career came when Royle employed Alan Hodgkinson, a former England international of similar stature, as goalkeeping coach. Hodgkinson taught Goram how to take up positions to compensate for his lack of height and later worked with him at Rangers and Scotland. Goram would go on to describe him as his “second dad” with his influence especially important following the death of his father from bronchitis when he was 23.

After more than 200