Dave McPherson will never forget the day boss Jock Wallace pulled him aside and told him Rangers were jetting out on a morale-boosting mid-season trip…to IRAQ.

The Hall of Fame defender was part of the Ibrox squad who bizarrely flew out to dictator Saddam Hussein’s war-torn country in March 1985.

The Iraqis were in the midst of the harrowing eight-year conflict with neighbours Iran and Hussein decided the visit of a well-known football club from the West would lift the spirits of his embattled people in the capital city of Baghdad.

Rangers had been knocked out of the Scottish Cup at home to Dundee and Wallace, who fought with the King’s Own Scottish Borderers in the jungles of Malaya, decided the autocrat's PR stunt would offer his players a break from the flak they were facing at home.

McPherson, who looks back on his storied Gers career in a two-part Rangers Review interview over the coming days, smiled:  “It seems unreal to think of that now but it is true that big Jock took us to play the Iraqi national side after we got knocked out of the Scottish Cup early.

“Iraq were at war with Iran, we were stopped at all the checkpoints going into Baghdad and our hotel windows had blackout curtains.

“When you looked out the windows there were anti-aircraft guns on the roofs, it was madness.”

The Gers players met Saddam at the team hotel and were presented with gold pens as a memento of their trip.

They tied the Iraqis 1-1 in the opening game of the tour before a 4-1 loss to them two days later and then closed the adventure with a 2-1 win over Kuwait in Amman, Jordan.

Dave recalled: “Jock loved it all, he thought he was back at war! The crowd was full of members of the Republican Guard who were given time off to support Iraq.

“What an experience that was, can you imagine that game happening now?”

McPherson experienced it all in a compelling career that saw him rack up two spells each at Rangers and Hearts and end up as a member of the Hall of Fame of BOTH clubs.

Now 59, he owns his own business Global Sports Recruitment that helps young footballers across the world gain scholarships to further their studies while playing the game they love.

Big Slim is remembered chiefly for his exploits at centre-half but also shone at right-back and in midfield for Rangers.

It is often forgotten that McPherson was the first ever Gers player to score FOUR GOALS in a European tie when he went on the rampage in an 8-0 win away to Maltese minnows Valletta in September 1983.

He admitted: “I was playing centre-back that day and to score four away from home? That was special.

“The first goal was a left foot finish, the second goal was a header, the third was a left foot chip and the fourth fell to my right foot.

“Wallace at times saw me as an attacking threat in midfield who could get into the box from deep and get on the end of crosses.

“You know the truth was I just spent all this time watching Derek Johnstone and he was a brilliant finisher.

“If you give DJ the ball in the box, headers, right foot, left foot he would always hit the target and I used to watch in awe. Maybe that day something rubbed off.

“Derek was in my opinion a better finisher than Coisty. If you gave Ally 10 balls in the box he would sclaff a few but not DJ.”