Queen of the South heap humiliation on Rangers with shootout win

LISA GRAY
Published on Wednesday 19 September 2012 14:20

Ally McCoist claimed Rangers’ extraordinary Ramsdens Cup exit at the hands of Queen of the South in front of a shell-shocked Ibrox last night was not a wake-up call for his players.

After slipping to a series of disappointing results so far this season Rangers have yet to win a game away from home in the Irn-Bru Third Division.

But Second Division leaders Queens went a step further by inflicting an embarrassing defeat on Rangers following a tense penalty shoot-out at Ibrox after the quarter-final tie remained deadlocked at 2-2 after extra-time.

• Read the full match report here

McCoist said: “I don’t think it’s a wake-up call. It’s a big disappointment.

“If any of the team were needing a wake-up call, then I hope that’s it tonight, that’s for sure. but I don’t think they were to be honest.

“It’s certainly not a wake-up call for me – it’s just a massive disappointment.

“We were all aware of how difficult the game would be against a good Queen of the South side who are doing well in the league and who knocked Hibs out of the League Cup.

“We were aware of how difficult the game was going to be so it’s a big disappointment for me.” Nicky Clark opened the scoring for Queen of the South, before Barrie McKay levelled and Lee McCulloch netted from the penalty spot.

The visitors then forced the tie into extra-time thanks to Gavin Reilly’s strike deep into injury-time, which was allowed to stand despite furious claims of offside by Rangers players.

McCoist added: “It’s a sore one, that’s for sure. It’s really, really disappointing to get beat and knocked out in the manner we did. I’m not sure there was an awful lot between the teams.

“I thought we’d probably done enough to hold on when we got the second goal and we were down to ten men so I was disappointed with the manner in which we lost the goal as well.

“I haven’t seen it again but a couple of the boys were telling me it was our throw-in and that the lad looked a yard offside. But, that aside, we should probably still be defending it a bit better.”

Both teams finished the match with ten men as substitute Kevin Kyle saw red for Rangers after just 13 minutes on the park and Willie Gibson was also sent off for the Dumfries side.

Asked about Kyle’s dismissal, McCoist said: “There didn’t look to be a lot in it to me and Kev says the same.

“I haven’t seen it again but sometimes you get the decisions and tonight we definitely didn’t.”

Queen of the South manager Allan Johnston did not feel his old club underestimated the threat posed by his players.

The former Hearts and Rangers midfielder said: “Definitely not, they definitely prepared right for us.

“I know for a fact they had us watched and didn’t underestimate us.

“I’m just delighted for our boys. With the effort they put in throughout the whole game, I think they got their just rewards come the end of the match.”

Taken from the Scotsman