‘Unfair’ not to call for a postponement

AS he prepares to take on Raith Rovers today and attempt to cut the nine-point gap to Hearts at the top of the SPFL Championship, Ally McCoist yesterday defended his decision to call for Rangers’ match against Cowdenbeath last Saturday to be postponed.

The Ibrox club’s request was upheld, and Rangers spent the international weekend on the sidelines while title rivals Hearts extended their lead at the top of the table. But McCoist insists it was the right call for his side. “The best way to put it would be: if we played the fixture without four players and we got beat, I’m not sure there would be too much sympathy and people would say ‘they were a wee bit unlucky because they had four players missing’,” he said.

“I think we all know football doesn’t work like that. So it is our job to play as strong as possible a team for ourselves, but also to respect the opposition. Having called some games off now, I think it would grossly unfair on some of the other teams.

“For example, if we go to play Dumbarton while there is an international and we play them while we are missing four players, is that then fair on Cowdenbeath, where we called the game off?” n Rory McKeown, the Raith Rovers defender, admits he has his fellow Northern Irishmen to thank for ensuring he has a spring in his step ahead of today’s trip to Rangers.

He said: “It’s been nice to see Northern Ireland getting results [in Euro16]. I definitely want to get back into that squad.

“I was on the bench for the senior squad last September. If Michael O’Neill sees fit to bring me into the squad then so be it. At the minute I’m worrying about picking up points for Raith.”