Source: FOOTYMAD
Malmo Game Could Be A (Fire)Cracker
There could be fireworks tonight when Rangers try to overcome Malmo's lead Ally McCoist leads his side to Malmo without the backing of their fans. The atmosphere could still be interesting as the Swedish side`s league meeting with Djurgardens was abandoned after just 11 minutes on Saturday after firecrackers were thrown on the pitch - the second time this season that a match has been halted at the Swedbank Stadium. McCoist is not worried about the safety of his players ahead of the Champions League qualifier against Malmo where rangers trail to a Daniel Larsson goal at Ibrox last week. McCoist claims his side are focused only on the game and progressing in the competition and does not fear a repeat of the scenes at the weekend. He said: "The players are looking forward to the game. These things happen in football and it goes without saying that we could do without them but our players will be fine, they are totally focused on the game. I've got no concerns at all about anything like that. It could work for or against us. You could say they have had a bit of a rest. I looked at the team and the coach maybe rested one or two players and then it ended up with the vast majority of them getting a rest with the game only lasting for 11 minutes. You could look at that way, or you could look at it that they could have done with a match. Only time will tell but there are positives and negatives that the match was abandoned after 11 minutes.'' Rangers' hopes of progression are hanging in the balance but McCoist believes the fact that they know exactly what they have to do will work in their favour. McCoist said: "The game is perfectly poised in the respect that both management teams have got a lot to think about. Strangely, it might be to our benefit that we know we need to score. Malmo have got the decisions to make, whether to come out and go for the goal which they think might be the killer goal or do they sit back and try to hit us on the break. The one definite is the fact we need to score. If we don't do that, we're out. In that respect, we know we have to score at least one goal and it was encouraging that Nikica Jelavic and Steven Naismith were both on the scoresheet on Saturday. They both had chances in previous games and Steven also scored against Hearts. We felt, particularly in the second half against Malmo and Hearts, that we had more opportunities to score and we didn't. It's very important that your forwards are playing with confidence and scoring and it will have done them no harm to score on Saturday.'' McCoist is still waiting to hear if Dorin Goian will be given the go-ahead to play in the second leg. Rangers are appealing against a UEFA ruling that he is ineligible, after the defender missed the first leg because his work permit had not been finalised in time. With skipper David Weir ruled out with a hamstring injury, the Romanian could have a key role to play if handed the green light. McCoist said: "The sooner we know the better from everybody's point of view but it is out of our control so we just have to wait and see. But, with Davie struggling with his hamstring, it's a big position for us, it's a key position for us.'' Meanwhile, McCoist has confirmed his interest in Arsenal striker Rhys Murphy. He said: "Rhys Murphy came up and played a closed doors game for us (on Monday) and did fine. He's gone back home, he has an international next week and he is going to come up and join us again towards the end of next week for the following week's training just to have a look at him.''
