IT was fitting that it was John Greig that represented Rangers this week as he spoke about Billy McNeill and then laid a wreath on the behalf of the club at his statue.

The two men mirrored each other in terms of being captains of the Old Firm and there was a mutual respect and a friendship there. They and their families became close.

The rivalry was as fierce as ever when we played, but there was a way to win and a way to lose. You conducted yourself in a different way and you appreciated good players in the opposition.

We knew what the Old Firm meant to the supporters, but you respected the jersey. I know we have moved on and the game has changed, but people can learn an awful lot from those days.

My second game for Rangers was the cup final against Celtic and Billy talked to me through the whole game. He would say things like ‘has the headmaster given you permission to come and play in this game today?’ and ‘have you done your homework? If you need a hand with it give me a shout’.

At the first corner kick, he said ‘come on and I’ll show you how to head a ball and score a goal’ when I marked him. I just laughed at it.

As it happens, at that corner I outjumped him and headed it away. As we went back, he said ‘sometimes you get lucky, it won’t happen too often’. It was all in good spirits.

There were other games I played against him where he would go through you. He was hard but fair and I gave as good as I got.

I respected him as the Celtic captain and as a winner and that is what I wanted to be. I learned how to be a winner quickly under Jock Wallace and John Greig.

I lived near Billy for a while and I saw him a few years ago while he was out shopping with his wife Liz in Newton Mearns. Liz asked me to stand with him for a minute while she went into a shop and I was asking how he was keeping.

He said he was forgetting things now and then so I asked him if he remembered October 24, 1970. He said ‘what happened then?’

I said that somebody got above him and headed the ball into the back of the net and won the cup.

He said he couldn’t remember that. Then he looked at me with a wee smile and gave me a wink.

I will never forget playing against him and talking with him and I am sad that he is no longer with us. He was a legend, an icon, and that is why so many people will celebrate his career and his life.

You don’t get many like Billy McNeill. He epitomised his club, his team and what a captain should be about and I will always have the upmost respect for him.

When you play for Rangers, you need to be a winner, to have that mentality. That was the same for Celtic and that was Big Billy.

When we were beating them, he certainly wasn’t shy in telling people what they should be doing and he inspired those around him. He was the greatest skipper Celtic ever had.

He was the captain 24 hours a day, seven days a week. He didn’t have that role on the park, he lived his life the way a captain should.

Did you ever see him on the front pages? No. Did you ever seen John Greig on the front pages? No.

They respected the job that they had at the clubs that they loved and they respected each other.

Yes, Billy played for our biggest rivals and we wanted to beat them every time you played them.

But there was a respect there and after the game you shook their hands. That is how it should be.