Andy Walker says he would gladly have swapped places with Celtic legend Paul McStay in the 1994 League Cup final.
McStay missed the vital spot kick as Jimmy Nicholl's Raith Rovers stunned the Hoops at Ibrox to claim the silverware 6-5 on penalties after the two sides played out a 2-2 draw.
Former Celtic striker Walker, who scored in the match, says that he would rather have been the fall guy on that dark day in the club's history than McStay.
Walker reckons that it was indicative of the fortunes of the club at the time - it seemed to stumble from one crisis to another and was, for the best part of a decade, cast in Rangers shadow.
Walker said: "Paul McStay had been in the Celtic team since he was 17 and he played in some highly successful sides but towards the end of his career the club were unable to compete with Rangers spending power. Paul bore the brunt of that and none more so than in the Coca-Cola Cup final against Raith Rovers in 1994.
"That was a black day for Celtic. I remember thinking at the time that, of all people to miss a penalty, please not Paul McStay.
"If you had given me the opportunity to step up that day at Ibrox and be the fall guy that day I would have swapped places with Paul and saved him from it. He was the last person I would ever have wanted to miss a penalty in a cup final.
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"I remember we played Hibs on the Wednesday after that game and he was brilliant - and the fans were brilliant with him.
"Paul carried a lot of weight and the expectations of all the Celtic supporters on his shoulders back then. In the end, it was all too much. He was also carrying a niggling ankle injury which eventually forced him to give up the game."
The 57-year-old Sky Sports co-commentator and pundit reckons that both McStay and John Collins deserved better from their spells playing in the Celtic team together.
Walker said: "I really felt for Paul and John in the late 80s and early 1990s as they deserved better than what they got. Both of these players could have played for any team - they were so talented.
"They were Celtic midfield stalwarts and the two best players by a country mile during that awful period in the club's history.
"John played for Celtic for six years and won a solitary Scottish Cup in 1995. That is an incredible statistic and it tells you all you need to know, especially for a player of John's calibre and ability."
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