RANGERS DEFENDED
Rangers manager Ally McCoist has had to defend a wide range of criticism after his team were defeated by Raith Rovers in the final of the Ramsdens Cup.
The club are expected to comfortably get this trophy under the belt, but a 1-0 defeat after extra time meant that it was more misery for McCoist in a cup competition. This has led to several doubting the possibility of McCoist getting Rangers back into the Scottish Premier league. The club will be playing in the Scottish Championship next season after getting promoted automatically by winning the league.
Despite managing back-to-back promotions within the club, McCoist has not been able to be successful in terms of winning cup competitions. Despite this, the entire team is behind the manager according to former captain Ally Dawson. Rangers also have one more opportunity to get a trophy when they take on Scottish Premier league outfit Dundee United in the semifinals of the William Hill Scottish Cup. Dawson says that McCoist was originally given the task of getting the club back to the Scottish Premier league. Since he is on course to achieving this objective, the former skipper has suggested that people should stop criticising McCoist.
Rangers have won the third division with several matches remaining.
"The priority when Alistair [McCoist] took over was to get Rangers back up the leagues and into the top flight as soon as possible. He has more than met these requirements with back-to-back titles and Rangers are unbeaten in the league this season. The Ramsdens Cup defeat was a disappointment but, given the level of injuries sustained by the team in the lead-up to it, and the fact a good few of the players were not fully fit, there is plenty of mitigation,” said Dawson ahead of the Scottish cup semi-final.