It was sold as a Battle of Britain but it’s probably better remembered as the Siege of Stretford.
Lee McCulloch and his Rangers side did well to escape unharmed from Old Trafford back in 2010 on a night when the growing gulf between Scotland’s top clubs and their English counterparts was clear, maybe not by the scoresheet but certainly by their managers’ respective tactics.
While Sir Alex Ferguson felt comfortable enough sending out a second-string line-up for Manchester United’s Champions League opener, old friend Walter Smith was forced into the footballing equivalent of circling the wagons. McCulloch had a grin on his face yesterday as he looked back on that night and joked his late, great gaffer had shaped his team up to play with eight at the back - but he wasn’t far off the truth!
Smith’s stubborn set-up at the Theatre of Dreams sent the Scottish champions to bed that night with a cherished point after a drab 0-0 draw. They didn’t exactly come out all guns blazing in the return clash back in Glasgow but United did finally find the room to grab a winner with a Wayne Rooney penalty. However, it was hardly the fair fight that cross-border skirmishes used to involve.
As a boyhood Gers supporter, McCulloch was raised on stories of Smith’s first Ibrox squad going toe-to-toe with Leeds in 1992 and emerging victorious after a battle of equals. But by the time he was entering the fray, combat between Scotland’s best and the mega-rich best from the Premier League had become a David v Goliath showdown.
“‘The Battle of Britain’ — that is how it was built up,” recalled McCulloch as he helped announce a pre-season friendly between the clubs at Murrayfield this summer. But football had changed financially, especially in England
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