‘Something’s missing’, admits Ally McCoist

ALLY McCoist admitted, in the wake of this fortunate victory against Caley Thistle, that there is a “wee bit missing” in the Rangers make-up at the moment, a certain spark, the type of flair that a Steven Naismith might have provided although the player McCoist mentioned was Sone Aluko, who completed his two-match suspension yesterday.

“We miss the wee man,” said the Rangers manager. “We had no real spark today, but we got a vital three points. You want to win with style but it’s not going to happen like that every week.”

McCoist’s counterpart Terry Butcher surprised everybody when refusing to launch a volley of flak in the direction of Bobby Madden, the referee, for some contentious decisions, all of which went the way of Rangers. Madden, it has to be said, is respected greatly. Even Richie Foran when stating that Madden got two penalty decisions wrong in the match was at pains to point out that Madden is a top official and a fine communicator. The Irishman’s sense of grievance was obvious, though. As was, in fairness, his anger at his own team’s defending for both Rangers goals.

“We had a good few chances here and if you don’t take them you will pay for it in the end,” said Foran’s manager later. “We don’t get penalties,” he said, calmly, when asked about the two big calls. “Twenty games this season, not one penalty. I think it is part of the SPL constitution that Inverness Caley Thistle don’t get penalties.”

He was joking his way through his press conference and certainly, when he praised Madden for his overall performance, he seemed genuine. “They have not been given,” he said of the penalties. “But I think Billy McKay’s was a certain penalty. You don’t encourage players to do down but he wanted to get to the ball and had a great chance of curling the ball in. It’s a game which could have gone a different way in many aspects. Rangers were hanging on and wasting a bit of time at the end.”