Ally McCoist on Rangers’ capitulation: Supporters deserve a lot better

Rangers suffered a 9-1 aggregate defeat in their Champions League play-off against Club Brugge.

Ally McCoist on Rangers’ capitulation: Supporters deserve a lot better than thatSNS Group

Ally McCoist described Rangers’ Champions League humiliation by Club Brugge in Belgium as “unacceptable” and claimed travelling supporters “deserve a lot better”.

Having to claw back a 3-1 deficit from the first leg at Ibrox, the Gers were a goal down after just five minutes from a Nicolo Tresoldi header before right-back Max Aarons was sent off three minutes later for fouling Christos Tzolis.

Further goals from captain Hans Vanaken, Joaquin Seys – twice – Aleksandar Stankovic and Tzolis left Rangers with an embarrassing 6-0 defeat and 9-1 on aggregate, with fans venting their anger at Martin, who has won three out of 10 games as boss.

Afterwards, Martin insisted he still has the support of chief executive Patrick Stewart and sporting director Kevin Thelwell, telling broadcaster TNT Sports: “I’ve had a chat with them already, they are amazingly supportive, they understand that this might take time.”

However, former Rangers manager and striker McCoist, working as co-commentator on the game, said: “That was unacceptable.

“I wasn’t confident Rangers could get a result tonight.

“Hopeful, yeah, you have everything crossed haven’t you, but realistically, you look at the performances this season, look at our first half against Club Brugge last week, miles off it.

“But what those travelling fans and watching back home expect is a level of competition and competitiveness which they didn’t see tonight.

“They took their foot off the gas ever so slightly in terms of the finishing, but the substitutes they brought on didn’t slow the game down at all.

“But in terms of the urgency to score goals, in terms of the level of finishing, it dropped second half.

“Rangers supporters deserve a lot better than the level of commitment, organisation and willingness to defend that they saw tonight.

“It’s a sad reflection when the best player on your team is the goalkeeper who has lost six goals, because make no mistake about it, if it wasn’t for him – he’s had two or three tremendous saves – that could have been a cricket score.”

There were eight new arrivals in Rangers’ starting line-up but McCoist has not been impressed by the club’s recruitment.

He said: “Physically, because they’re small, they look like wee boys.

“They’re clearly not wee boys, and they won’t thank me for saying that, they’ll hate me saying it, but they look like wee boys.

“There’s no men, you need men. And your men don’t need to be 6ft 5ins, 6ft 6ins. They just need to have heart, head and a bit of organisation and desire.

“That’s what men do and they’re short of that in this department.

“There’s no doubt they’ve got skills and they’re a talented group of individuals.

“Are they as talented as the team they had last year? I don’t think so.

“They’ve gone back the way. But in terms of what you’re looking for from a Rangers team, you’re not going to go out and dominate opposition, particularly of that quality.

“But you deserve a lot better than you got tonight in terms of a willingness to work for each other.”

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