McCoist seeks redemption while board post losses

Ally McCoist insisted he felt Rangers' fans pain after their cup final defeat to Raith Rovers on Sunday. Picture: Jane Barlow

Criticism of McCoist’s cup record was accompanied by anger from some fans after photographs emerged which appeared to show him singing karaoke at Ibrox after the game on Sunday.

The club confirmed a post-match function had taken place but questions on the issue went unanswered when captain Lee McCulloch met the media on Wednesday.

And McCoist only addressed the topic indirectly during an interview on the club’s official website.

“I can assure everybody the players were feeling it along with the staff and all the supporters,” he said.

“It has never been any different at this club. You win and lose together as a team and a squad and everybody feels the same.

“We were extremely low after Sunday but it is our job to get everybody back up and focused again.”

McCoist and his players have the chance to redeem themselves when they play Dundee United at Ibrox in the William Hill Scottish Cup semi-finals on Saturday.

The club’s record goalscorer said: “Rangers teams of the past have lost big, big games and they’ve always bounced back and showed a great mental attitude to do that. This team will hopefully be the same.

“We’ve seen and we can tell the players are well up for it and they’re really motivated and focused on getting the job done.

“We’re still really disappointed as you’d expect but we can’t sit back and feel sorry for ourselves.

“There’s absolutely no doubt we can move on. It’s a game against a team which will definitely be favourites against us and they’ve had some good performances this season.

“Outwith their 2-0 defeat to Celtic last week, Dundee United have been scoring goals for fun and they’ve got some very good players from the middle to front.

“At the same time, our lads know what is expected of them and the game is getting played at our stadium.

“We’ll have a fantastic support there and in an ideal world we’ll give them something to shout about.”

Rangers losses

Meanwhile, The Rangers Football Club Ltd, the company set up by Charles Green as Sevco Scotland when his consortium bought the assets of the liquidation-bound Ibrox club, has announced losses of £18.1million in the 13 months up to June 30, 2013.

Rangers International Football Club plc, the parent company of the club, had previously announced losses of £14.4million for the same period.

The accounts, which were lodged at Companies House, show the club owes the parent company £16.1million.

But that sum will not be recalled for the foreseeable future.

Much of the information in the document was previously known through the plc accounts. Turnover was £17.7million and staff costs were £17.6million, about 10 per cent of which was paid to directors.

The accounts also reveal that severance pay totalling £468,000 had been paid to directors who had left the club since June 30, namely Craig Mather and Brian Stockbridge.

The plc last month announced a loss of £3.7million in the second half of 2013 and that, at the turn of the year it had just £3.5million left of the £22million raised when it was floated on the stock market 13 months earlier.

The directors of the two companies are the same except for Sandy Easdale, who only sits on the club board and not the plc.