Despite the pain Stuart McCall is a big fan of play-offs

Stuart McCall’s chances of being Rangers manager on a permanent basis could hinge on the outcome of a penalty shoot-out.

Despite that and his own testing experiences as a player, he remains an unapologetic supporter of the format.

“I’m a fan of the play-offs I think they are great,” he said. “They create loads of interest and make for so many more meaningful games at the end of the season.

“They are great for people watching in from outside, and for those involved they can be make or break.

“Look at Alex Neil. If Hamilton Accies hadn’t won last year’s Final on penalty-kicks, then he is not in the job he is in at Norwich City just now, is he?

“As well as he had done at Accies before, he got the Norwich job because Accies did brilliantly under him in the Premiership earlier in the season.

“Terry Butcher? He is probably still at Hibs if the play-off had gone the other way.

“So that just shows you football is about fine lines particularly these games. You have to accept that.”

McCall knows that to be the case from his time as a player.

“In 1987/88, I played in the first play-offs in England for Bradford City against Middlesbrough,” he recalled. “In the last game of the season, we could have avoided it by beating Ipswich, who had nothing to play for. But Jason Dozzell scored two screamers and they beat us 3-2. So Aston Villa went up with Millwall and we were in the play-offs.

“Boro had Tony Mowbray and Gary Pallister at the back and Bernie Slaven up front a really strong team. We’d already beaten them twice in the League that season, and in the first leg we beat them 2-1 at home. I scored in that game and we thought we had them on top of the mantelpiece after beating them three times. But we went up there, and Slaven scored in extra time to beat us 2-0 and knock us out.

“It turned out that Colin Harvey from Everton was at the game that night and I got my move to Goodison. I knew the Everton transfer was on, but I actually wanted to stay at Bradford in the top league.

“The Bradford fans were gutted after the game and they were saying to me: ‘It’s OK for you, you’re going to Everton.’

“But I never felt like that. I wanted to get promoted with Bradford so I was devastated.

“My other play-off memory is from my time at Sheffield United. We played Wolves in the Final at Wembley and I had an ankle injury. I had to take an injection at half-time to come off the bench.

“Neil Warnock was great. He said: ‘Right, I’m putting you on.’ And I’m saying: ‘Yeah, but we’re 3-0 down. What do you want me to do?’

“When he told me to warm up, I was saying: ‘Are you kidding me?’

“We had Wolves’ number over the season, but were 3-0 down in the first half. In the first five minutes, we got a penalty but Matt Murray saved from Michael Brown.

“Who knows if that would have changed things? Despite all that, I’m a play-off fan.”