From 60,000 crowd to 5,000, Rangers must be able to adapt

NO RANGERS player will make his reputation at Station Park tonight, but each of them have been warned by Ally McCoist that it is a venue where their standing with the Ibrox club could be irredeemably lowered.

A fifth-round Homecoming Scottish Cup tie at Third Division Forfar Athletic may be widely regarded as little more than a formality for the trophy holders, but McCoist knows his football history well enough to be concerned about even the merest hint of complacency from his team.

The Scottish Cup defeat at Berwick Rangers in 1967, which abruptly ended the Rangers careers of Jim Forrest and George McLean, still resonates at the club in the same manner as Celtic shudder at the memory of their seismic exit at home to Inverness Caledonian Thistle ten years ago.

The Rangers assistant manager, who like last season has been handed control of the club's Scottish Cup campaign by Walter Smith, certainly has no wish to put his name to what would be another of the biggest upsets the tournament has ever produced. It is McCoist's responsibility to ensure motivation levels do not dangerously drop among the players under his command after Sunday's SPL showdown at Celtic Park.

"This is what playing for Rangers is all about," observed McCoist. "You come off an Old Firm game in front of 60,000 and then you are travelling up to face Dick Campbell's Forfar.

"I mean it in a respectful way, but it is going from one extreme to another.

"It shows our players everything playing for our club entails.

"We would all think it would be easy to get motivated for an Old Firm game, but you could maybe question if it is the same for an away game at Forfar.

"As Rangers players, they must be able to do that. I've told the players they must have the same attitude regardless of the opposition.

"It's not an easy thing to do and the football graveyard is full of players from Rangers and Celtic who haven't been able to do it. I would hope the motivation part of it isn't that difficult.

"We are holders of the trophy, we are still in every domestic competition this season and we do want to win every game.

"The players are fighting for places, so there is a lot of competition at the moment.

"It's about personal pride, too. Footballers do have massive egos and no-one likes it when they are not in the team. So there is everything to play for on Wednesday.

"The Forfar players may never have an opportunity like this again, playing such a big tie live on television. They would kick their grannies for it.

"We have to earn the right to play against Forfar. We have to stand up to them and match their aggression first of all.

"If we do that, we should win the game because we have better football players. But the beauty of the game is that the better football players don't always win."

If his nominal role as manager for the Scottish Cup is clearly part of the club's longer term strategy, in which chairman David Murray views McCoist as Smith's natural successor, he is keen to try and downplay its significance.

"It's more important for the club that we win the game," insisted McCoist. "That's bigger than any individual. But I really enjoy taking the team. It's all part of a learning curve for me and I'm in charge of everything, until it really counts.

"Seriously, I do the team talks and have a say in the team selection which all of the coaching staff do for every game. The fact we were so successful in the tournament last year helped me enjoy it.

"Hopefully the players are desperate to retain the trophy, because it is always a nice day out at the end of the season."

McCoist confirmed Rangers will make changes for tonight's tie, one of which is forced upon them after Kirk Broadfoot suffered a foot injury on Sunday.

An X-ray has revealed no break was sustained, however, and the Scotland defender could be fit again as soon as this weekend. Kyle Lafferty, who limped out of the Old Firm match with a calf injury, has recovered to retain his place in the squad.

John Fleck, substituted after 59 minutes of his Old Firm debut, may drop to the substitutes' bench tonight, but McCoist stressed the 17-year-old will not be judged on his display at Celtic Park.

"I'll sum his performance up by saying he didn't look out of place," said McCoist.

"Just because he wasn't outstanding in his first Old Firm game should not be used against him.

"We've got to be fair to John, there were a lot of average performances out there. It would be wrong to pick one.

"His progress is vitally important to us. We will sit down and think about it and there will be occasions when we will pull him out of the team and then put him back in. I'm not necessarily saying that will be the case tomorrow."

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Criticism of Old Firm draw stings at Ibrox

ALLY McCoist believes the widespread criticism of Sunday's Old Firm game is no more valid than the praise which was being heaped upon Scottish football less than a year ago.

While the Rangers assistant manager agrees that his team's 0-0 draw at Celtic Park was a poor spectacle, he insists it is unfair to use it as evidence for sweeping condemnation of the game in this country.

"What we are not good at as a nation is finding the middle ground, which I think is roughly where we are," said McCoist.

"Last year, we weren't the greatest thing since sliced bread, but Celtic qualified for the last 16 of the Champions League, we reached the Uefa Cup final and Scotland had been unlucky in their most recent qualifying campaign. Everyone was saying 'great, it's never been as good'.

"Now, when things don't go so well for the Old Firm in Europe or the national team, the same people are saying it's never been as bad. That's not the case, just as it wasn't the best ever a year ago.

"I agree that it wasn't one of the better Old Firm games we have seen, but I'm not sure it was quite as bad as everyone is making out. We should hold judgement a little bit. Let's not get too carried away by one 0-0 draw and one poor game.

"I can't remember a reaction to an Old Firm game like it. You want them to be great games of football, but that's just not always going to be the case. Over the piece, I would say we have had far better ones, but we've also had far worse ones. It wasn't a great spectacle on Sunday, but the boys have served up much better ones recently so I think we should cut them a bit of slack.

"But then my glass is always half full rather than half empty. The Old Firm fixture hasn't lost its magic for me. There was no difference in the atmosphere from where I watched the game. The passion was still there among both sets of players and supporters.

"There was a definite lack of goalmouth action, that was the one thing that stuck out for me. Putting aside the quality of the play, it is goalmouth action that gets fans on the edge of their seats. There is still an edge to the fixture and I'd be surprised if the next one is 0-0.

"Although all of the players and both coaching staffs would deny it, psychologically I think a draw was a result that didn't really upset anyone. I include both sets of fans in that."

McCoist also defended the quality of the current Old Firm squads which have been compared in a poor light to those at both clubs during the era in which he played.

"There are reasons to back up that argument, because both clubs no longer have the pulling power or the finances they had 10 or 15 years ago," he said. "But I'm certainly not going to agree with it. The last thing both sets of players want to hear is that it's not as good as it was 10 or 15 years ago."