DESPITE only spending a short time at Ibrox, Tugay Kerimoglu showed his undoubted skill but it was unfortunate for the Turkish playmaker that Rangers had an abundance of quality midfielders during that time…

ZIPPAR (Beith) – I recently found a programme of a match I attended in 1995 at Old Trafford between Man Utd and Galatasaray. The Galatasaray team were captained by a player named Tugay Kerimoglu, and I’d like to know if it’s the same Tugay who later played for Rangers?

It is indeed the same Tugay. In 2000, Dick Advocaat used the January transfer window to bring the Turkish playmaker to Rangers following an immensely successful 13 years at Galatasaray, during which he became the club’s youngest ever captain.

Despite showing glimpses of his undoubted talent, Tugay struggled to hold down a regular place in the team throughout his time at Ibrox, a task made more difficult by such competition as Barry Ferguson, Ronald de Boer, Jorge Albertz, Claudio Reyna and Giovanni van Bronckhorst.

Tugay was sold to Blackburn Rovers for £1.3million in the summer of 2001, where he would enjoy a hugely successful eight years before retiring as a club legend.

Sir Alex Ferguson felt that Galatasaray’s 4-0 defeat in the match you attended was largely down to Roy Keane’s shackling of Tugay, and later commented that Tugay would have been a terrific player for Manchester United.

HARRY (Royston) – One of my favourite Celtic players was Roy Aitken. Could you help me with some information? Which school did he go to, and did he play for any Junior clubs or boys clubs before signing for Celtic?

Roy Aitken attended St Andrew’s Academy in Saltcoats. He didn’t play Junior, but played for both Ayr United Boys’ Club and Celtic Boys’ Club.

He signed an S form for Celtic in 1972, and was called up on June 5, 1975. He was at Celtic until January 10, 1990, when he joined Newcastle United.

KEVIN (Mountblow) – My workmate was at the Scottish Football Museum at Hampden Park recently. He found out that the first International between Scotland and England in 1872 ended in a 0-0 draw. Can you tell me if any other matches against the Auld Enemy ended goalless?

There have been another two which ending goalless.

Almost 100 years after the first encounter, Scotland played England at Hampden Park on April 25, 1970, in front of over 137,000 fans but they went home without seeing a goal, and on May 23, 1987, in the Rous Cup both teams again failed to score.