McCoist out to ease Scottish woes

25 August 2011 09:00

Ally McCoist insists Rangers will do everything in their power to help boost the image of Scottish football when they face Maribor in the Europa League play-off.

The reputation of the game took a battering in last week's first legs, with Rangers slumping to a 2-1 defeat in Slovenia, Celtic being held to a goalless draw at home by Swiss side Sion and Hearts coming off worst of all three with a 5-0 thrashing by Tottenham.

He said: "I can only speak for our own club and it is important. We all have a responsibility to do our best for the co-efficient and we will do that."

He added: "This is an opportunity for us to do our bit and we know how difficult the task will be but it's not something we are shirking from. We feel we can do it and we will give it our best shot."

McCoist may have faith in his side's ability to book their place in the group stages but refused to look beyond the clash with the Slovenians.

He said: "Maribor showed enough in the second half to show us all that they're not a bad team.

"They can score goals and they've got some good players in their side.

"We did reasonably well in the first half and we had a far better performance on Sunday, which was a tough fixture for us against top-of-the-table Motherwell.

"If we can take our form from Sunday's game into this game, I would be happy. I would not be looking any further than this game."

Source: PA