ANDY GORAM walked out on the Scotland World Cup squad last week because of death threats from a convicted UVF bomber. The terrorist is reported to be furious about an alleged affair between the troubled former Rangers man and his wife. According to reports north of the border, the controversial keeper began a relationship with the Belfast man's wife during a trip to Northern Ireland for a testimonial last July. Goram was regularly seen visiting the woman at her home after he and his team mates were in the country playing against local side Crusaders . The woman's 39-year-old husband - who has now served his ten-year jail sentence - was said to be unaware of the affair at the time. One Loyalist source said: "Goram is well known for having an eye for the ladies, but this time he's gone too far." Adultery with the wife of a "prisoner of war" is widely regarded as the ultimate taboo in Northern Ireland. Now her husband and his comrades are said to have issued a warning that should the Ibrox star ever visit the city again, they will be gunning for him. Goram, a loyalist sympathiser who denied wearing a black armband last season to commemorate the murder of loyalist leader Billy Wright in the maze prison, was allegedly warned of the problem by friends in the UFF. The Sunday Mail reports that the loyalist group are worried his bed-hopping could spark a violent row between different factions. The stress of the threat is the real reason Goram walked out on his Scotland team mates in New York on the eve of their World Cup warm-up friendly against the USA last weekend. When he arrived back in Scotland, Goram failed to turn up at a pre-arranged press conference and was driven off to a secret hide-away. Goram is a friend of Belfast businessman Jim Gray, seen recently escorting UFF killer Michael Stone into an Ulster Democratic Party rally in the run-up to the peace deal. When questioned about the woman, Goram first made mention of her first name, but then refused to make any comment on the reports.

LEIGHTON IS SCOTLAND'S 'MIRACLE MAN'   SCOTLAND'S ageing star Jim Leighton can't wait to tackle the might of World Cup favourites Brazil in Wednesday's opening game�even though the South Americans almost wrecked his international career eight years ago. The Aberdeen goalkeeper, who will be 40 next month and is now uncomfortably registered as the oldest player in this year's finals, considers it something of a miracle to be facing the boys from Brazil again after seemingly being pensioned off after a disastrous Italia 90. It was the former Manchester United player's spectacular and much-chronicled blunder which led to Luis Muller's late winner for Brazil, denying the Scots their first-ever place in the second round - a statistic which still rings painfully true today. Leighton, who will be making his 87th appearance for Scotland at the Stade De France on Wednesday, admits he feared his career was over following that nightmare match in 1990. I was so angry about that because we were just nine minutes away from drawing with Brazil and qualifying for the next phase, he recalled. I remember kicking the goalpost in fury and, once the game had finished, I couldn't move. I just stood there. I was looking around the stadium trying to take it all in, convinced that I would never play in the World Cup finals again. I honestly thought my international career was over. The Brazilian keeper, Claudio Taffarel, had to run the entire length of the pitch to shake hands and swap shirts because I was so upset and couldn't move." And eight years later, the two will meet again in Paris; the Brazilian number one, like his Scottish counterpart, is his country's only survivor from 1990. Leighton doesn't mind being labelled a veteran, though. They've been calling me that since 1986, he said. Age doesn't come into it. This is my fourth World Cup and I just intend to make the most of it.

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