INTERVIEW-Soccer-Johnston still the character 30 years on

(refiles to fix typo in para 10)

By Tom Pilcher

LONDON, Dec 23 (Reuters) - From negotiating the price of a
greenhouse while taking corner kicks to being sent off 21 times
in his career, life was never dull with former Scotland
international Willie Johnston around.

However, despite his prodigious talent that helped Rangers
to their last piece of European silverware, the 1972 European
Cup Winners' Cup, Johnston is unfortunately best remembered for
being sent home from the 1978 Argentina World Cup after failing
a drugs test.

Johnston, now 62, took two Reactivan cold remedy tablets to
relieve his hay fever before Scotland's opening group game
against Peru.

Unknown to the Scot they contained the illegal stimulant
fencamfamin, which was enough to hand him a year-long FIFA ban.

"In our time we didn't get told what not to take. You'd have
to be a chemist," he told Reuters in an interview in central
London.

For the former Rangers and West Bromwich Albion
crowd-pleaser, already out of favour with the Scottish FA due to
his disciplinary record, the incident marked the end of his
international career and the start of rough treatment from the
media.

"We were wondering if I could get pardoned after 30 years of
torture," Johnston said, flanked by Tom Bullimore, the co-author
of his recently released biography.

"If it happens it happens, I hope I'm still here. But I
don't think I'll get picked for the next game," he said,
winking.

The sorry drugs affair has resurfaced in the book -- Sent
Off at Gunpoint which charts the winger's immensely colourful
career.

"It was only because we were half-drunk one night that we
said `We're going to make a right go of it.' Most good ideas
come in a pub," said Johnston, now a publican in Kirkcaldy,
Scotland.

SENDINGS OFF

Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson writes about
Johnston's "famous temper" in the book's foreword.

"There is no point in portraying his disciplinary record as
a blip on an otherwise outstanding career," wrote Ferguson, who
played alongside Johnston at Rangers.

The sending off that provided the inspiration for the title
of the book occurred when Rangers played Fiorentina in New York
in a 1969-70 pre-season friendly.

"The referee said 'You're going off.' And I said 'I'm not
going off,'" Johnston recounted.

"So he called a policeman, who drew his gun and said 'You're
off.'"

In the book Johnston adds: "I had to go anyway... I needed
to visit the men's room."

Another, which he described as his best sending off, came in
a league cup match at The Hawthorns against Brighton in the
1976-77 season.

"The referee kept getting in the road. So I booted him in
the arse," he said, chuckling as he recalled the incident.

Johnston believes that if he were to play today he would
receive better protection from officials, as most of his
sendings off came when he retaliated to being scythed down by
opposing players.

"The referees weren't looking after us when we played," he
said. "It's far easier now."

GREENHOUSE YARN

Johnston said he was no devil despite his disciplinary
record and had a special rapport with the fans.

For example, during matches over the course of two weeks at
The Hawthorns he negotiated to buy a greenhouse from a front-row
fan.

"One day the fan found out, in the match programme, that I
liked gardening," Johnston recalled.

"My next step was to get a greenhouse, and when he said he
had one for sale that's when I started talking to him.

"I used to take my time putting the ball down, when I was
taking corner kicks, and that's when I'd ask 'Right how much you
want for it?'

"He started at 60-70 quid (pounds) but after a couple of
weeks I got him down to 40 pounds and I bought it. Then after I
took the corner I shook his hand and said 'Right we've got a
deal, I'll see you after the game.'

"It was a cracker of a greenhouse!"

(Writing by Tom Pilcher, Editing by Mike Collett and Justin
Palmer)