McCoist keeps faith in Rangers

Rangers manager Ally McCoist declared full belief in himself and his team's ability to win the Scottish Championship after a 2-0 defeat at Tynecastle left them nine points adrift of Hearts.

McCoist was on the end of abuse from some of his own fans as 10-man Rangers fell to their third defeat of the season.

A sweeping first-time effort from Jason Holt, after an acrobatic clearance from Lee McCulloch ricocheted off Darren McGregor, sent Hearts on their way in the 56th minute and Jamie Walker's late penalty sealed a win that puts McCoist under serious pressure.

But he said: I don't think about that myself and that's the truth. My only concern is the team and the club getting back to where we want to be.

"Today is another reminder that it's going to be difficult, very difficult.

But I am still as firmly focused and determined and full of belief as I ever have been.''

McCoist added: "It's going to be difficult but it's not insurmountable, that's for sure. We are not halfway into the season, there's a long long way to go.

"Hearts are playing very well but I think we showed enough, particularly in the first half, that we are more than capable of closing that gap.

"Nine points is not ideal, far from it, but we have a firm belief that we can do it. It's not going to be easy but we still believe we can be champions come May.''

The club's record goalscorer was subjected to cries of Ally, Ally, get to f***'' by a significant section of the away support when he took off Lewis Macleod for Kris Boyd in the 80th minute, although they were soon drowned out by chants ofSuper Ally'' from other Rangers fans.

McCoist said: "I've had it before, probably more than most. I am aware of it, absolutely.

"It ain't nice, I'd be lying if I told you otherwise. But I've been in the game long enough to know that it's part and parcel, particularly at the club.''

While McCoist faced the criticism from fans, the manager levelled his own at Steven Smith, who was shown a straight red card in the 21st minute for a studs-showing challenge on Callum Paterson.

"Initially, crazy as it may seem, the way the game went for 10 minutes after the sending-off wasn't too bad,'' he said.

"I thought we were the better team in the first half by some considerable way.

"But I was very disappointed in the sending off. It put us up against it, against a team who are playing very well at the moment. I feel Steven has let his team-mates down with the challenge.''

Smith's tackle was arguably no worse than subsequent fouls by Kenny Miller and Boyd, the first of which saw Kevin McHattie leaving the field on a stretcher with a knee injury and forced the manager to take the striker off moments later.

And McCoist admitted his side could have showed more focus on the football in a game that yielded nine yellow cards.

"There were one or two needless challenges, particularly in the second half, that put us under pressure again, and then you have to make decisions, because you are down to 10 men and don't want to lose any more men. That was a disappointment.

"But the positives are we absolutely kept going until the end and were fully committed.''

Hearts head coach Robbie Neilson admitted the game had "hinged on the sending-off'' but felt his players had generally stood up well to the physical challenge.

"It was always going to be like that,'' Neilson said.

"For both sides there were a lot of strong challenges but you have two teams at the top of the league competing at Tynecastle with a full house and the atmosphere and the build-up to the game. We had to stand up to it. They put some challenges in and we put some challenges in.

"A lot of them have experience of playing in the SPL so I knew we could handle the occasion, it was just about handling the physicality and strength. We did a lot of work on that during the week and thankfully they have taken things on board.''