It was a moment of madness that defined a Rangers career.
In punching Motherwell's Lee Erwin in a televised skirmish and subsequently losing the plot spectacularly within the bowels of the stadium, Bilel Mohsni, a colourful Tunisian centre-half, has come to encapsulate the madness of the Banter Years era.
The flashpoint came on the back of a devastating loss to Motherwell in a 2015 play-off to reach the Premiership as Stuart McCall's side lost 6-1 on aggregate.
If there has ever been a more humbling and brutalising two-legged scoreline in the club's history, it doesn't come to mind.
It was a hard one to stomach for everyone involved, not least the Ibrox support.
And yet the amiable defender, now plying his trade in Saudi Arabia, didn't come away unscathed either.
To this day he solemnly admits his career has never recovered from the events that fateful day. Hit with a seven-game ban, he feels his next career step was fatally compromised.
He said: “I receive a red card and a three-game ban, which is fair enough as I hit a player. The compliance officer then said it wasn’t enough. I was then given a seven-game ban. All the other players got zero.
“If you give it to me because I hit one player then fair enough but you must also give seven games to the player who hit me and you give seven games to the other player who hit me. So if we have seven, seven, seven – no problem. But if I have seven and they have zero, this is not fair.
“If I had started it and hit someone, fair enough but Lee Erwin hit me too. I was like, ‘Bilel, this is the time when Scotland tells you to leave.’ So I left. I think the fans were happy (that I showed some fight) but this killed my career.
“It changed it completely because seven games in the UK is one month but seven games in France is nearly three months. I went to sign for Angers and once they realised I was banned for seven games they said, ‘Ok, we will wait for you,’ but in seven games the team was performing well so I wasn’t playing.
“After that, I went to the second division but it killed my career. It’s sad because I’m against violence. Of course, protecting yourself is important. If you hit me I will always defend myself.”
Mohsni came on as a second-half substitute in the ill-fated game at Fir Park with the Light Blues trailing 5-1 on aggregate.
He openly admits he didn’t want to be on the pitch in the first place amid disgruntlement with then caretaker boss Stuart McCall.
He said: “Stuart McCall was the worst manager I had in my life. When he arrived, he took me out the team.
“In the first leg at Ibrox, I was in the stand and we lost 3-1. At Motherwell away he put me on the bench and we were losing 2-0 before I came on. I told him, ‘Don’t put me on, I’m not superman, I will not play.’
“He told me to warm up and he put my number up. I had to come on just out of respect for the fans but I was very upset.
“I came on and he changed tactics, he told Lee McCulloch to go up front, the left-back and right-back to push up and let the wingers become attackers so I was defending on my own.
“With 15 minutes left, I was on holiday in my head. I was thinking, do I fly home to Paris? Do I drive home to Paris? Do I take the train when I arrive in Folkestone? Or will I take the boat?
“I knew the game was finished. If we lost four or five it didn’t matter because the main goal was to get promoted and we weren’t getting promoted.
“Lee Erwin starts to be rude, he elbows me, he’s swearing at me about my family and kicking me. The referee didn’t see because he was clever. I was counting down the minutes, then the whistle blew and the game was finished.
“I’m disappointed to lose, I’m disappointed because this season is over because we didn’t get promoted. I’m disappointed for the fans. I’m disappointed for Rangers and I’m disappointed in myself because I wasn’t able to help the team.
"I’m leaving on the way to the changing room thinking I’ll drive home to Paris.
“Lee Erwin came over and now he’s telling me, after swearing at all of my family, my grandmother, my mother, that we are family again. I am not his family, the game is finished. He tried to give me his hand.
"I said, ‘I know it’s maybe a game in your head to try put me off my game. No problem but don’t expect me to shake your hand after you swear about my mum.’
“When I said this, he hit me from the back. I think maybe all of what I was holding in my head with the disappointment, the anger at that time...
"In one split second I didn’t think I was in a stadium. I didn’t think it was a game on TV. I didn’t think about anything in my head telling me not to hit him back. I just turned and I hit him without thinking.
“It was a big mistake. It was very stupid but I wasn’t thinking, I was defending myself. If you hit me I just defend myself, that’s it.”
His departure from Ibrox is still one that upsets the 34-year-old who claims he received no support from the club.
He said: “It’s sad in one way to finish at Rangers like this. I understood the sanction, of course. I’m not happy at what I did but I expected the club would protect one of their players but they didn’t protect me, they just left me on my own.”
It spelt the end of a rollercoaster couple of years in Govan for Mohsni, he arrived from Southend United on a free transfer in the summer of 2013 but admits he could’ve turned out for arch-rivals Celtic instead.
“There was interest from Celtic. They wanted me to sign but at the time my club didn’t let me go. Then the end of the season came and they let me go.
“I had a chat with Ally McCoist and he said, ‘Come over, see how you like the club, the facilities and the players.’ As soon as I arrived I thought it was top! Murray Park was unbelievable. I was thinking, ‘Wow! A swimming pool, the gym is massive, four pitches and indoor pitches.’
“I was very happy. I was at a top-flight club in Scotland so I was delighted. Then I visited Ibrox when it was empty and I was like, ‘Wow!’, the guide was telling me that the stadium is always full so I thought this would be superb.
“My first game was against Newcastle at Ibrox. Oh my god. I played with Lee McCulloch in the centre of defence. I was talking to him on the pitch but he didn’t hear me because of the noise.
“The distance between me and Jig was about five to ten metres maximum but I had to scream and after the game I screamed so much, the next day I lost a little bit of my voice.”
Mohsni would become a key figure in McCoist’s side as Rangers romped to the League One title - going through the entire season unbeaten.
And the legendary striker and the Tunisian had a solid relationship.
“He’s a character, one of the best manager’s I’ve had in my career. He was a top man.
“In France and England I had managers who were strict but when I arrived in Glasgow, I saw a manager who was different, always laughing with his players and having a proper chat with them.
“At training one time, we were working on our finishing. You come from the middle of the park and you go one-on-one with the goalkeeper, if you miss you stand aside and afterwards you would stand on the line and we would hit your bum.
“Ally McCoist wanted to join in, we had one chance, he had three.
“We said to Cammy (Bell), Lee Robinson and Stevie (Simonsen), ‘Please, please guys do your best like you’re playing against the best striker ever.’
“They saved everything. Four players missed plus Ally McCoist so we told them to stand near the post and leave Ally on his own so we don’t hit them. Instead, we’re going to hit Ally McCoist.
“Now I’m thinking Ally, being a big name, would tell us, ‘No guys, fuck off, I’m going home. See you, bye.’
“But no, he pulled his shorts down and we saw his fat arse. We were all laughing on the floor. I swear on my life, I hit the hardest shot of my life. I hit his back then the post, I didn’t hit his bum but some players did!
“This was maybe the first couple of weeks. I told my brother what happened, he said ‘No way! Ally McCoist?’ I said, ‘Yes, the Ally McCoist!’
“Every time on a Friday we would play football golf. I think it’s him who first had the idea! We would play without holes, he would set the rules to put the ball between two lines or put the ball into a circle and the one with fewer touches would win.
“He was one of the best managers and one of the best guys I ever met.”
Mohsni would form a decent partnership with Lee McCulloch at the heart of the Rangers defence as they romped to the title in his first year.
He loved playing under his captaincy, and describing him as the best on-pitch leader he's seen in his career.
“He was one of the great characters.
“Lee played in the UEFA Cup final, played in the Champions League, played internationals. When you see similar players to Jig, with a similar career, they’re sometimes 'Captain Arrogant' - they think they’re the best.
“With Jig, he was the first to enjoy, the first to laugh and the first to take the pressure off the team. He was the best captain I had in my life, his attitude was very good, his energy was very good, I have nothing but good things to say about him.”
The pair would net an impressive 30 goals between them with Mohsni often deployed as a makeshift striker, a position he loved to play.
“In training sometimes the manager would put me up front. I was scoring goals and I enjoyed it. The best emotion in a match is to score goals. The manager gave me this confidence so I felt like I was free to go up front and to score without being judged and in set-pieces we had tactics around me and Jig so this is why we scored a lot.”
Mohsni’s cavalier playing style and never-say-die attitude endeared him to many Rangers supporters but he admits playing in front of them could be challenging at times.
“The fans were very good to me," he recalled with a smile.
“One time, we played on a Friday so we had Saturday and Sunday off. My friends were here and they wanted to go into the town centre. I said it will be a nightmare for me because I will be asked for pictures and sign autographs. My friends didn’t believe me.
“There was a guy doing a magic trick in a circle, I wanted to see the magic trick, so I’m standing there, there were maybe 40 people around this guy. One fan screamed, ‘Aaagh! Mohsni is here!’
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“All of a sudden the circle around the magician came to me. I spent about an hour and a half signing autographs and having pictures taken. It was good because I met the fans but for an hour and a half my friends were standing there, they didn’t move but it was their fault because I told them this would happen. That’s the relationship I had with the fans, I always remember this.
“But on the pitch, the fans of Rangers are very demanding. I remember we played in the cup against a team who just defended (Albion Rovers). I was playing centre midfielder because we were so high. They scored an unbelievable goal and after that they just defended. We drew in the end but the fans booed us. We hit the post, we hit the bar, their goalkeeper had a very good game but the fans were on our case.
“I went to watch some Rangers fans play five-a-side one time and they hate losing but when they lose, do I go to them, ‘Boo!’
"No, because I know they gave everything.”
Mohsni’s second season as a Ranger was a disaster as the club failed to reach the Scottish Premiership.
Ally McCoist’s time at the helm would be brought to an end in December 2014, a decision that rocked the Tunisian.
“I was with the national team playing in Equatorial Guinea and my brother sent me a text after training saying Ally McCoist was sacked. It was a sad day because he was like a father to me so I was very disappointed.
“I had a day off the next day because I didn’t feel like training. I had a chat with him on the phone. He said, ‘Bilel, don’t worry.’ When I had him on the phone, I had tears in my eyes. This was very sad for myself and one of the biggest mistakes of the board at the time.”
Kenny McDowall would take interim charge before Stuart McCall was handed the reins in March 2015, tasked with guiding the club to promotion.
Despite not seeing eye-to-eye, Mohsni admits McCall was put in a difficult position.
“Ally was his pal so can you imagine if your best friend gets sacked and you have his job, so I don’t think he felt like he was in the right place. If my brother lost his job and I took his job I would feel like I had betrayed my brother.
“He wanted to help the team, his heart was split. He wanted to help Rangers and at the same time he wanted not to betray Ally McCoist, it’s difficult to be in that position.
“I wish I would never be in that position. If you paid me a lot of money to be in this position I would not take it.”
Despite his acrimonious exit, Mohsni harbours no ill-feeling towards the club and admits he’d love to return to Ibrox as a fan one day.
“I watch the games. I have no problem with the club, with the fans, at the time it was just the manager I had the problem with. The day they won the league, I wanted to come but I thought it’s better for them to enjoy it and I’ll just watch it on TV.
“I’m very happy for the club, they deserve it, they had a great season. I don’t want to come to Rangers just now because maybe some fans will welcome me, but maybe they’ll be upset.
"I’ll follow them from outside for now.”
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