THE 2002 Scottish Cup final was one that Rangers fans will look back on fondly. Twice Celtic took the lead over their arch-rivals in an end-to-end contest, only to be pegged back first by Peter Lovenkrands and then by Barry Ferguson.

As the game passed the 90-minute mark, extra-time looked inevitable. But then, right at the death, Lovenkrands' late header steered the ball past Rab Douglas to seal a League Cup and Scottish Cup double for the Light Blues.

Alex McLeish, the Ibrox boss at the time, insists that the last-gasp victory was one of his greatest moments as a manager. And speaking to the Athletic, the former Hibs and Scotland manager revealed that he had a plan to target a weak link in Martin O'Neill's starting XI.

Chris Sutton started at centre-back that day at Hampden, and McLeish was convinced that Lovenkrands would be able to cause the striker-turned-defender all sorts of problems.

"Chris was a centre-forward but he had played there with aplomb before," he said. "Peter's legs were too good for any of Celtic's back four and through the middle of defence was definitely an area we targeted.

"I've had a few highs in my career but to win such an exciting game in the way we did after beating Celtic in the League Cup was a fantastic way to end the season.

"That was a top Celtic team. Martin O'Neill said that was their next-best team since the Lisbon Lions."

The Danish forward got on the end of Neil McCann's first-time cross to bundle the ball home to seal Rangers' name on the trophy, and McLeish reckons that Lovenkrands didn't always get the recognition that he deserved.

"Peter was a fantastic finisher," he said. "He was capable of overhead kicks or scuffing one in with his right foot.

"He was great at coming in off the line but playing on the wing wasn't his greatest strength. People thought, 'Peter has pace, he can go by people and put the ball in' but there is an art to getting past people.

"Peter often looked more deadly when he ran inside or ran through the middle. He was sort of a modern-day wide player ­- like you see now in front threes, like [Liverpool pair] [Sadio] Mane and [Mo] Salah, who like to play narrow.

"He deserves more credit than he was given."