Barry Nicholson was booted out his mates’ group chat after helping mastermind one of Rangers’ worst ever results. But the Queen’s Park assistant manager admits being snubbed by his pals for one night was worth it after securing memories that will last a lifetime.

Nicholson, who spent five years at Ibrox as a player, was the main man in the away dug out on Sunday with Queen’s boss Callum Davidson suspended. He only found out he would be controlling affairs at the side of the park a day before the Spiders battled to their greatest victory in the modern era.

But after writing history as the first lower league team to ever beat Rangers at Ibrox in a Scottish Cup tie Nicholson insists it’s a day he’ll never forget. Not that his pals - including former Annan captain Chris Jardine - are likely to mention it again. He told Record Sport: “It was an unbelievable day. The players were outstanding and the scenes in the dressing room afterwards were unreal. My family were there to make it all the more special although it didn’t go down too well with my mates! I’m on a group chat with Jardy and his cousin, his uncle and a couple of other lads that we know. They're all Rangers fans. I went on my phone right after the game and already it said ‘Jardy has removed you’.

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“There was actually a poll on that group chat on Thursday or Friday saying ‘will we kick Baz off the group chat until Monday?’ That was before we beat them! So right after the final whistle, Jardy's decided just to take me out. And, by the way, he's actually been there as an opposition captain with Annan and beaten Rangers himself!

“But I know it's in jest. They’ve been super supportive of me and they’ve been texting since then saying they were so proud of me and stuff like that. So, that was nice. It was just a wee bit of a banter.”

Nicholson and fellow ex-Ger Steven MacLean were in command in the dug out as Davidson kept in touch by radio from the stand. The plan was always to send super sub Seb Drozd on after an hour or so. But even Nicholson couldn’t have imagined what would follow just a few minutes later as the former Millwall kid netted the winner with Queen’s only shot of the afternoon. Goalkeeper Calum Ferrie then grabbed the man of the match accolade with a series of stunning stops including an injury time penalty save from James Tavernier.

And Nicholson said: “The reality only really hit home the last five, 10 minutes. Even when we scored, we were under pressure but we didn't feel Rangers were cutting us open. They did have a lot of shots from distance but I felt comfortable until the last ten minutes. Then reality just sets in that you're like, wow, we could actually do it, really spring up like an upset here. And it was just about trying to keep the lads going.

“Seb was a wee bit unfortunate not to start. He's not played a lot of football and the last couple of games, we just felt he was a wee bit tired. So we just went with the freshness of Kyle Hurst but we knew that Seb would come on at some point. To score so soon.. you couldn’t write that stuff.

“As for Calum Ferrie, he’s a brilliant, brilliant boy. He comes out and trains like a demon every day. He's just a top, top pro and such a humble guy. He works so hard on his game. He prides himself on his shotstopping and in training it’s unbelievable. Some of the saves he makes. So, we know that's in his locker.

“When you go to Ibrox or Parkhead in the Scottish Cup, if you've got any chance of winning the game, your goalie's going to have to be good because you know that they're going to have chances. And Calum was absolutely sensational.

“He studies the penalties. It's an unbelievable save to keep us 1-0 ahead and obviously win us the game. But the VAR check for the penalty and then the VAR check when Calum saves it… I must admit, I was pretty drained on Sunday night!

“Some of the intentions were to go into Glasgow for a couple of beers but that never happened. I sat in front of the telly and watched the Super Bowl. I was just absolutely drained.

“I had known that Cal was going to get suspended, but nothing really had been mentioned of it. It was just at the pre-match meeting he said ‘I’m going to be in the stand, so we need to communicate’.

“I was like, ‘what?!’ It was a bit surreal but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

“Cal was absolutely meticulous in his preparation the whole week on the training ground. He was in constant communication with us on the bench. It was a weird feeling, but absolutely buzzing for the lads after the game. It was unreal in the dressing room.

“Hopefully now we can take it into the league and have a right push for the play-offs - and get a good draw in the cup to give us a shot at reaching Hampden and the semi finals.”