Old Firm defeat focused Rangers, says McCoist
Rangers assistant manager Ally McCoist says the recent defeat at Celtic Park could prove to be the Ibrox side's most important result of the season.
McCoist feels the 3-0 loss provided a jolt that Rangers needed to regain focus as they try to retain their Scottish Premier League crown.
"If you get beat 1-0 and were unlucky, you could maybe paper over cracks and kid yourself on a bit," said McCoist.
"After that performance, there was no kidding ourselves on."
Rangers return to Celtic Park on Wednesday for a Scottish Cup fifth-round replay, having since picked up two good results.
Following their Parkhead misery, Walter Smith's side produced a battling performance against Sporting to progress to the last 16 of the Europa League and then took advantage of Celtic's league defeat to Motherwell by beating St Johnstone at Ibrox.
"Hopefully it's a lesson learned because we feel, as disappointing as we were and Celtic did play well, we can play a lot better than that, we can play miles better than that," McCoist said.
"We certainly still had chances to score, should've had a penalty but Celtic ran our thoroughly deserved winners."
Ibrox captain David Weir revealed in his programme notes ahead of the St Johnstone game that Smith held a meeting with his players the day after the 3-0 defeat to Celtic in an attempt to put right what went wrong.
"We just had a chat," said McCoist. "Everybody had an opinion.
"It was concerning for us because we're a far better passing team than we showed. We've got players who are very, very comfortable on the ball but on that particular day, we didn't show that at all.
"So, all we can do is, effectively instil a bit of confidence in them and ask them to go out and express themselves and pass the ball as we know they can and we know they can.
"I've been in a lot more hostile meetings let me tell you. If you need a reminder, it's nice getting a reminder before it's too late. They're an intelligent group of players. They know what's expected of them both on and off the park."
Smith has reportedly banned his players from drinking, socialising and using social networks as they look to continue to compete on four fronts.
McCoist was part of Smith's successful 1990s Rangers team, which was famous for its off-field team spirit, crystallised by former captain Richard Gough's assertion that "a team that drinks together wins together".
"There's a bit of a myth about that to be honest," McCoist said. "The one thing we did as a team, we knew when to play football and we knew to prepare.
"And these boys do the same. But sometimes in the modern day, there are outside influences. I'm not a Twitter man myself, not a Facebook man. I don't know if it's an age thing.
"Why wind people up when you don't need to? That's my opinion on it. There's certainly enough coverage with television, the written media and the radio without adding to it.
"It's not an added frustration. It's just something you have to adapt to, it's modern times, it's supposedly progress. I've not got my head round this Twitter thing yet but it's not something that I'll be queuing up to join.
"Believe me, if the club's hopefully successful then there'll be plenty of times to enjoy themselves, that's for sure."
In terms of tactics for Wednesday's game, McCoist hinted that Rangers might adopt the 5-4-1 formation they have used in Europe this season, with Weir expected to make his return to the starting line-up.
"There's not a formation that I personally wouldn't consider," added McCoist.
"Davie's in good form, it's remarkable how he got through 70 minutes over in Lisbon [having been ill].
"Hopefully now, he's fresher and available for selection. There's potential for one or two formations. We can go five at the back, three at the back, 4-4-2, there's lots of things you can do."
Source: BBC News