Ian Durrant (born 29 October 1966) is a Scottish professional football coach and former player who is currently a first team coach at

East Kilbride East Kilbride (; gd, Cille Bhrìghde an Ear ) is the largest town in South Lanarkshire in Scotland and the country's sixth-largest locality by population. It was also designated Scotland's first new town on 6 May 1947. The area lies on a raise ...

. During his playing career, Durrant played as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

for

Rangers A Ranger is typically someone in a military/paramilitary or law enforcement role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called “ranging”. The term most often refers to: * Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with protecting and ...

for 13 years and was part of the team that won nine successive league championships to equal a record set by rivals Celtic, although he barely played for three years after suffering a serious knee injury in 1988, having established himself as an important member of the side. He had a loan spell at Everton in 1994, and finished his career with Kilmarnock. Durrant also played for the

Scotland national team The Scotland national football team gd, Sgioba Ball-coise Nàiseanta na h-Alba sco, Scotland National Fitbaa Team represents Scotland in men's international football and is controlled by the Scottish Football Association. It competes in the thr ...

, gaining 20

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Ja ...

over a 12-year period.

Playing career

Rangers

Durrant started his career at Rangers. He was Ally McCoist's boot boy when the striker first joined the club from

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

in 1983."Si Ferry Meets... Ally McCoist"
- Open Goal, YouTube, published on 16 April 2018 Durrant made his debut against Greenock Morton in April 1985. The following season, he was a regular fixture in the Rangers team and scored in his first

Old Firm The Old Firm is the collective name for the Scottish football clubs Celtic and Rangers, which are both based in Glasgow. The two clubs are by far the most successful and popular in Scotland, and the rivalry between them has become deeply e ...

match. He displayed his early promise to a wide audience with his performances alongside fellow young midfielder Derek Ferguson in the

Scottish League Cup The Scottish League Cup (also known as the Viaplay Cup for sponsorship reasons) is a football competition open to all Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) clubs. First held in 1946–47, it is the oldest national League Cup in exist ...

finals of

1986 The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 **Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. **Spain and Portugal enter ...

and

1987 File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airpor ...

(scoring in both matches and also converting the winning shoot-out penalty in the latter). In October 1988 Durrant (then aged 21) was seriously injured in a challenge by

Aberdeen Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), ...

player Neil Simpson which tore the

cruciate ligament Cruciate ligaments (also cruciform ligaments) are pairs of ligaments arranged like a letter X. They occur in several joints of the body, such as the knee joint and the atlanto-axial joint. In a fashion similar to the cords in a toy Jacob's ...

s in his right knee. Durrant did not play competitive football for almost three years. After one aborted return in early 1990, he made his comeback appearance in a reserve fixture in January 1991 against Hibernian and was welcomed back by around 30,000 fans. His league return was also against Hibs towards the end of that season, and he started the crucial winner-takes-all match against Aberdeen in May 1991 which secured the title for Rangers. In 1993 Durrant sued for damages against Simpson, and settled out of court for an undisclosed sum. Durrant went on to play a part in the

1992–93 UEFA Champions League The 1992–93 UEFA Champions League was the 38th European Cup, the premier European club football tournament, and the first season with the UEFA Champions League branding (originally adopted only in the group stage). It was the second season of ...

run (scoring against

Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Fran ...

at the

Stade Velodrome Stade (), officially the Hanseatic City of Stade (german: Hansestadt Stade, nds, Hansestadt Stood) is a city in Lower Saxony in northern Germany. First mentioned in records in 934, it is the seat of the district () which bears its name. It is l ...

) and helped Rangers equal Celtic's record of nine successive league championships, the last of which was clinched in

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of ...

. Despite his injury problems he played a total of 346 competitive games for the club, scoring 45 goals, and won six League titles, three

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,Ally McCoist, Durrant transferred to Kilmarnock. He spent four years at

Rugby Park Rugby Park, also known as The BBSP Stadium Rugby Park for sponsorship reasons, is a football stadium situated in the Scottish town of Kilmarnock. It was first used in 1899 and is the home of Kilmarnock F.C. Rugby Park has also been used for c ...

before retiring and becoming coach of the youth team. He made 101 appearances for ''Killie'' including seven matches in the

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, cla ...

, and the 2001 Scottish League Cup Final.

Scotland

Durrant made his international debut on 9 September 1987 against Hungary, eventually winning 20 caps for

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to th ...

. His final match was as a Kilmarnock player, against

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 Counties of Ireland, counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern ...

on 30 May 2000.

Coaching career

In 2005, he returned to Rangers as coach of the under-19s and, later, the reserve team. Following the resignation of

Paul Le Guen Paul Joseph Marie Le Guen (, ; born 1 March 1964) is a French professional football manager and former player. He was most recently the manager of Ligue 2 club Le Havre. During his playing career, Le Guen played as a midfielder, and enjoyed a s ...

as Rangers manager on 4 January 2007, Durrant was caretaker manager until Walter Smith was appointed manager. He immediately reinstated

Barry Ferguson Barry Ferguson (born 2 February 1978) is a Scottish football coach, former player and pundit who was most recently the manager of Alloa Athletic. Ferguson spent most of his playing career at Rangers, in two spells either side of a £7.5 mil ...

– the club captain who had been deposed by Le Guen – but lost his only game in charge of the first team, a

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,Dunfermline Athletic. Durrant worked as a coach of the Rangers first team under Walter Smith and Ally McCoist. After McCoist left the club December 2014, Durrant was demoted to a position with the under-20 team. He left Rangers in June 2016. On 27 January 2017, Durrant was appointed assistant manager to Stephen Aitken at

Scottish Championship The Scottish Championship, known as the cinch Championship for sponsorship reasons, is the second tier of the Scottish Professional Football League, the league competition for men's professional football clubs in Scotland. The Scottish Champio ...

side

Dumbarton Dumbarton (; also sco, Dumbairton; ) is a town in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland, on the north bank of the River Clyde where the River Leven flows into the Clyde estuary. In 2006, it had an estimated population of 19,990. Dumbarton was the ca ...

, after previous assistant Stephen Farrell took over as manager at

Scottish League One The Scottish League One, known as cinch League One for sponsorship reasons, is the third tier of the Scottish Professional Football League, the league competition for men's professional football clubs in Scotland. The Scottish League One was ...

club Stranraer. He became joint caretaker manager with

Jamie Ewings Jamie Ewings (born 4 August 1984) is a Scottish former footballer and goalkeeping coach. Career Born in Bellshill, Ewings began his career at Motherwell but left the club in 2005 without making a first-team appearance. From there he moved to A ...

when Aitken was sacked in October 2018 but left the club following Jim Duffy's appointment. He joined Lowland League club

in June 2020, again as assistant manager to Aitken.

Personal life

Durrant was fined £1500 by Rangers in 1987 after his involvement in an incident in a kebab shop after Rangers had won the league championship. In October 2018, Durrant was filmed shouting "Fuck the Pope" during a Rangers supporters' dinner event in Bothwell attended by former players. He had previously been fined at court in October 1989 for singing sectarian songs and committing a

breach of the peace Breach of the peace, or disturbing the peace, is a legal term used in constitutional law in English-speaking countries and in a public order sense in the several jurisdictions of the United Kingdom. It is a form of disorderly conduct. Public ...

during an incident in Glasgow's Kinning Park in May of that year, while he was out injured (he was in the company of Derek Ferguson who was found not guilty in relation to his involvement).

Honours

Player

;Rangers *

Scottish Premier Division The Scottish Football League Premier Division was, from 1975 until 1998, the top division of the Scottish Football League and the entire Scottish football league system. It lay above the Scottish Football League First, Second and (from 1994 ...

: 1986–87, 1991–92,

1992–93 Year 199 ( CXCIX) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was sometimes known as year 952 ''Ab urbe condita''. The denomination 199 for this year has been used since th ...

, 1993–94, 1994–95, 1995–96 *

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,1991–92,

, 1995–96 *

: 1986–87, 1987–88,

, 1993–94Did not play in the 1988, 1990 or

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 800, causing the plane to crash and killing everyone on b ...

Scottish League Cup finals

References

External links

* *
Rangers ''Hall of Fame'' profile
*
Rangers profile at ''Sporting-Heroes.net''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Durrant, Ian 1966 births Living people Footballers from Glasgow Scottish footballers Rangers F.C. players Kilmarnock F.C. players Scotland international footballers Scottish Premier League players Scottish Football League players Everton F.C. players Premier League players Association football midfielders Rangers F.C. non-playing staff People educated at Bellahouston Academy Scotland under-21 international footballers