McDowall told to demote Durrant

Caretaker Rangers boss Kenny McDowall has revealed the club's board left it to him to break the news to Ian Durrant that he was being demoted.

Departing manager Ally McCoist was put on garden leave on Sunday night as the club decided it could not let him run down his 12-month notice period in the Ibrox hotseat.

McDowall has now been put in temporary charge until the end of the season, with Under-20s coach Gordon Durie and skipper Lee McCulloch added to the first-team's backroom staff.

But former Gers midfielder Durrant's future now looks to be in some doubt after McDowall explained that he was ordered to dispel with Durrant's services from his set-up and instead make him coach the club's youth team.

Former Partick and St Mirren striker McDowall, who was handed the reigns after late-night talks with Sandy Easdale and Derek Llambias at Ibrox on Sunday, said:

"The board intimated to myself that Ally had been put on garden leave and they told me they were going to make some changes to the structure of the coaching team.

"Gordon was to come up from the 20s to assist me and they wanted to make Lee a player/coach and I was to start immediately.

"Was my opinion sought? No they asked me if I could make those changes immediately. But the decision was made by them.

"As for Durranty, that was the board's decision too. They asked me to carry it out which I duly did.

"I was asked to inform the guys of the changes being made.''

Asked if it was normal practice for a board to leave it to a caretaker boss to inform staff of changes to a coaching set-up, McDowall said: "I've never been on a board before so I wouldn't know what normal practice is. They asked me to carry out the duty and I duly did.

"Ian Durrant is an excellent professional and always has been throughout his career. He took it no problem at all. He has worked at that level before and done very well. So he was more than happy to go back down and do a job for a club that he loves.''

At Monday's stormy AGM, new chief executive Llambias hinted McDowall could be given the manager's job for longer than the rest of this season.

But the 51-year-old former Celtic youth coach, who quit Parkhead to join Walter Smith's Rangers coaching staff in 2007, said: "I'm just going to take it one game at a time and try to get Rangers winning on the park.''

It was confirmed last week that McCoist had resigned his post but the club's record scorer insisted four days later that he would see out his year-long notice period.

Yet by Sunday night the club had announced the manager had gone.

McDowall, who was promoted to assistant manager when McCoist replaced Smith in 2011, said: "I'm very saddened to see a good friend depart the club that he has been absolutely unbelievable for over the last three years and longer before that when he was a player.

"But the last three years I've been assisting him has been a bumpy ride.

"Ally McCoist was the glue that kept this club together.

"I was surprised when I found out he had resigned because I didn't know it was coming. Listen, we are all big boys. It has been a bumpy ride but football is football and anything can happen.''

While the club's off-field soap opera was a distraction for McCoist, performances did little to help his cause.

Rangers - already nine points behind Hearts having played a game more - face Hibernian this Saturday knowing defeat will all but kill off their automatic promotion hopes.

McDowall has warned fans not to expect sweeping changes when he names his line-up for the Easter Road clash.

He said: "There's not a whole load I can change because everything Ally was doing was with my backing.

"The players appreciate that they have got to do a bit better on the park in terms of consistency. But these guys are good players. They don't just become bad players overnight.

"Because they are Rangers players, everything is scrutinised - every last pass. But they know they need to keep their standards high.''