Don’t write off wounded Rangers, says Mccoist

GLASGOW: Rangers manager Ally Mccoist has warned those who are lining up to have a kick at the crisis-hit Ibrox club that they won’t be down for long.

Mccoist was speaking after watching his makeshift Rangers side fail to lighten the ever-darkening storm clouds gathering over Ibrox as they lost 2-1 to Hearts in what was their third successive home defeat.

With player cuts looming large, Rangers fielded an unfamiliar line-up made up of several youngsters and took a first half lead through Steven Davis before Ian Black and Jamie Hammill gave Hearts the win.

The defeat stretched Celtic’s lead at the top to 21 points despite their 17-game winning run in the Scottish Premier League coming to an end after they were held to a 1-1 draw by Aberdeen at Pittodrie.

In recent weeks Celtic manager Neil Lennon called for Rangers to be retrospectively stripped of their “tainted titles and trophies” won between 2001 and 2010 if found guilty of “financial doping”.

That barb was a reference to the tribunal into Rangers’ use of Employee Benefit Trusts between 2001 and 2010, which could land the Ibrox club with a £75mil tax bill.

With Rangers at perhaps their lowest ebb in their 140-year history Mccoist hit out at those he feels have been revelling in Rangers’ demise and in a veiled dig at Lennon warned those criticising his club that the Scottish champions wouldn’t be down for long.

“I think at this moment in time we are wounded, there is no doubt about it,” the Rangers manager said.

“There’s probably one or two people out there enjoying it and maybe one or two people taking a wee fly kick.

“I would suggest to them to have a right good kick just now because we won’t be where we are for long.”

Meanwhile Rangers’ administrators said they expect to announce an agreement on job cuts at the club on Monday.

Duff and Phelps turned down a players’ union offer of substantial salary deferrals on Friday saying a higher level of cost base would hinder the sale of the club.— AFP