Defiant Ally McCoist urges Rangers to start afresh in bid to retain title

FOR Ally McCoist, the turn of the year has to be a turning point for his players. As the Rangers manager prepares for Motherwell to come first-footing at Ibrox on Monday, he senses a critical moment for both himself and his squad.

“Times come throughout the season when you have to step up to the plate as coaches, managers and indeed players,” said a reflective but defiant McCoist yesterday. “I think that time has come.”

Wednesday night’s Old Firm defeat at Celtic Park, which saw an erstwhile 15-point lead in the SPL title race become a two-point deficit, has sparked predictably rabid levels of discontent among a section of the Rangers support.

As immune as McCoist will remain to the phone-in and messageboard protests, he will recognise he has entered dangerous territory for any Old Firm boss after the back-to-back losses against St Mirren and Celtic.

Not since the fag-end of Alex McLeish’s tenure have Rangers lost three consecutive matches and McCoist can ill afford to suffer that fate on Monday. Little wonder he is keen to view the match as an opportunity for a fresh start.

“Here we go, we are off and running again,” he said. “It starts on Monday against Motherwell. Everything starts again on 2 January. Forget the Old Firm game, forget we were at the top of the league. We now have to realise we are playing catch-up. We are second in the league and we are still well in the hunt to win the championship.

“It’s probably a different mentality now to a certain degree. We are the hunter rather than the hunted now. In terms of the need to win games, it is just as great if not greater. We have to string a good run of results together, like we did at the end of last season. We have to hit a bit of form and put a good winning sequence of results together. I really believe we can do it.

“The vast majority of our players have proved they are worthy of the jersey over the last three years or so. I don’t think anyone has to prove anything, because most of them have proved they can handle playing for this club.

“You hope one result will kick-start it for you. You need a few results but you have to start somewhere. The game against Motherwell is the perfect place to start.

“If we approach the game in the same manner as we did on Wednesday, the vast majority of our fans will accept what happens on the park if we show a level of commitment and endeavour to try to win the game. If we show the same level of application we did against Celtic, with a little more luck and a little more flair, then we will be absolutely fine.”

As much as he preferred to look forward, McCoist did pause to assess his team’s 1-0 defeat at Celtic Park. While content with their application and attitude, he admitted the lack of creativity in the attacking third of the pitch is their biggest failing at the moment.

“That would have to be a little bit of a worry,” he added. “There’s no doubt that we are not creating as many chances as we did earlier in the season. I felt we put out a team on Wednesday night which would have created more chances. So I’d have to say that’s a concern.

“Everyone of us is hurting a bit, as you would expect following an Old Firm defeat. But, as I said on Wednesday night, I didn’t think there was a lot in the game. There wasn’t an awful lot between the teams.

“In terms of chances created, it was really quite tame by Old Firm standards. The goalkeepers were limited to one or two saves. The way the game was going, I told the boys at half-time I felt it would take a free-kick or set-play to win the game. Unfortunately we were proved right at the wrong end.

“It could have gone either way, absolutely, but that doesn’t make it any easier to take. We had one or two chances early on in the game through Lee Wallace and Carlos Bocanegra. Celtic had one or two shots from outside the box which our goalkeeper dealt with. James Forrest cut in and had a shot in the second half which forced a reasonable save from Allan McGregor, but it was one you would expect him to save. But then we switched off for the goal. It was one lapse in concentration, really.”

McCoist remains stoical about the goal which got away from Rangers on Wednesday night when Lee Wallace’s seventh minute header appeared to cross the line before Celtic goalkeeper Fraser Forster clawed the ball to safety. He attaches no blame to referee Willie Collum or his assistant George Drummond.

“I’m still very disappointed, but you couldn’t get angry about it,” said McCoist. “The ref had absolutely no chance of seeing it. The linesman had no chance of seeing it. Simple as that. The only reason we know it was over the line is because we saw it on television, let’s be honest about it.

“I thought by the reaction of Nikica Jelavic, it was very, very close. But I didn’t know it was over the line. I couldn’t have given a goal. We can only give a goal now because we have seen it on television. In that respect, I have absolutely no problem at all with the officials.”