Dougray Scott in Focus:  Articles and Interviews

The McCoists arrived together at the glitzy premiere at Glasgow's Odeon cinema, which was sponsored by the Sunday Mail and McEwan's and attended by stars from the worlds of football and showbusiness.

The couple waved to fans after stepping off a specially-chartered double decker bus outside the cinema, echoing the football movie's cup-winning story.

And Ally, who had the night off from co-hosting ITV's football highlights show The Premiership, seemed to have lost none of his bounce, despite a traumatic three days, even joking that the only scandal "Was Craig Brown not taking me to France in 98."

Before the film began, he introduced schoolboy Robert Findlay, who stars alongside him, to the star-studded audience which included Enigma actor Dougray Scott, Scotland manager Craig Brown and BBC sports anchorman Dougie Donnelly.

Many of the stars of the film including Kerry Hamilton, who plays a football groupie who beds Ally, and Scottish football stalwarts John McVeigh, John Martin, Andy Smith, Kenny Black and Owen Coyle also attended the premiere.

Ian Durrant, a former Rangers and Kilmarnock team-mate, was there with his wife Angela. Ewan McGregor's mum and dad Carol and Jim were also on the guest list.

McVeigh, now manager of Albion Rovers, revealed that Hollywood legend Robert Duvall, who produced and starred in A Shot At Glory and was unable to make the premiere because of the terrorist outrage in America, phoned him a message of good luck on Friday night.

He said: "You will never believe this but I was sitting in the house on Friday when my daughter came through and said, 'Boaby's on the phone for you.'

"It was Duvall. He was trying to get Ally as well but he just wanted to wish us all the best. He's promised to come to Scotland in the future and meet up with all the boys from the film again. He really enjoyed making the film."

Craig Brown was also looking forward to the film but revealed that a cameo appearance by him had been dropped from the final cut.

He said: "I was speaking with Robert Duvall and I am afraid to say it looks like my big break into the film world has ended up on the cutting room floor."

Dougie Donnelly said he was looking forward to seeing if Ally could live up to his own hype. He said: "Ally keeps telling me his film career will even be better than his football career, which of course is no mean boast."

And actor Dougray Scott a well known Hibs fanatic, added: "It's about time we had a decent football film. I am sure if anyone can pull it off it's Ally."

Dougray lived up to his nice guy reputation, stopping to sign autographs and chat to young fans outside.

©2001 Daily Record and Sunday Mail