At 6.40am on November 24, 1995, the gates of Barlinnie prison in Glasgow’s east end, slid open.
Duncan Ferguson, the first professional footballer to go to jail for an offence committed on the field of play, was illuminated by the flash bulbs of cameras pressed against the windows of a Daimler.
Edging past a small group of devoted Everton fans, the former Rangers striker ordered the driver to press the pedal to the metal and hit the M74 as fast as the wheels would spin.
Nursing a strong sense of injustice over his treatment at the hands of the Procurator Fiscal and an SFA hierarchy hellbent on punishing him twice, his 44 days in prison had come to an end.