When it comes to backing McCoist,
this blog is guilty of being as fickle as any emotional supporter. One minute
it is only fair to cut him slack, the next he gets outright praised for a great
run in October/November, then suddenly two bad results and he needs to leave.
This is the beauty of football,
of supporting a team – you literally are only as good as your last result, and
going by the Hearts and Alloa scores, he and the team were abominable.
Yesterday saw a home fourth-round
tie with SPL midtable side Kilmarnock on the
menu, and the pressure was certainly on McCoist to get the right selection to
overcome a theoretically superior team.
The team sheet, as usual, made
for grim reading. Daly was starting again after his disaster in Gorgie, while
hapless Mohsni likewise retained his place at the back. Even more precarious
was RB Foster’s installation on the left to cover for both Steven Smith and the
injured Lee Wallace.
And yet, 90 minutes later, a
comfortable 3-0 victory over the Rugby
Park side showed
pre-match concerns to have been totally unwarranted.
The early stages of the match
were promising, if not inspirational, with the home side picking at the
visitors, sizing them up, without really creating a lot. But when Nicky Law
curled home yet another wonder strike on 19 minutes, it was simply plain
sailing thereafter.
The much-maligned Mohsni was an
absolute titan at the back for the Govan men, with Steve Simonsen rarely tested
as countless clearances were made by the Tunisian international. It was his
best display for a long time, and showed what a colossus he can be when he
concentrates. McCulloch even got more involved than usual himself, with a fair
few vital interceptions and tackles, and he deserves credit for that.
Regular readers will know I have
castigated Jig endlessly for years, but I will always give credit when it is
earned, and he had a decent match yesterday.
Black in midfield did his usual
dirty work, the stuff which goes unnoticed, but the stuff which stops the
defence being more pressed than it ends up being. Blackie, when he concentrates
similarly, is a better enforcer than many fans give him credit for, but he
showed up yesterday. And Law, once again, seems to have an astounding knack for
wonder goals, notching two distance efforts.
The introduction of Boyd saw an
always-pleasing strike from one of Ibrox’s favourite sons, especially given his
current confidence levels.
Frankly McCoist got just about
everything right yesterday. Foster was excellent at LB, McGregor absolutely
imperious on the opposite side, and even Daly, while not sparkling, was
distinctly better than last week.
Ally has bought himself a little
time, but as much as he deserves heavy criticism for the things which go wrong,
like last week, it is only fair to praise when things go right, and they did at
Ibrox. You can use all the arguments you like about Killie not being a
brilliant team, but they are still an SPL team, and that is a division above
us.
For all the pressure on McCoist
that his ‘job was on the line’ if he did not win, for some fans to then dismiss
a victory as being against a ‘rubbish team’ (a team who apparently were not
rubbish till Rangers beat them) is just blatant hypocrisy and downright unfair.
You cannot dismiss the result if the opposite would have had you calling for
his head.
As much as I have decried
McCulloch, I have also done likewise with McCoist (as regular readers will
know), but when fans will actually refuse to give any praise for a good result
is just plain not on.
See what I mean about fickle?