Lest we forget

[Big Al 55 9,275]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2278795/Ally-McCoist-Kenny-McDowall-credit-deserve-keeping-Rangers-alive.html

[Big Al 55 9,275]

Couldn't copy paste perhaps someone will do the honours.

[Christchurch Rangers 1,229]

The saviours who worked for free: McCoist and McDowall should get the credit they deserve for keeping Rangers alive

By Stephen Mcgowan

PUBLISHED: 18:49 GMT, 14 February 2013 | UPDATED: 18:49 GMT, 14 February 2013

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Twelve months today Rangers entered administration. Few will forget the moment they heard the news in a hurry.

For Scottish football this was dangerous, perilous, unimaginable stuff. A JFK moment.

A board of directors was instantly wiped out, Duff and Phelps commandeered Murray Park, players were asked to take swingeing pay-cuts, staff feared for their jobs and manager Ally McCoist was left the last man standing.

Hero: Ever since administration began, Ally McCoist has been completely committed to the cause

Publicly, the image of McCoist as a man alone during a traumatic period is an enduring one. Yet his assistant manager Kenny McDowall was by his side, hour by hour, day by day, helping the manager to hold back a tsunami. An experience he describes now as ‘horrendous’.

McCoist effectively held the club together, fulfilling the roles of acting chief executive, financial controller and social worker. All whilst trying to deal with a 10 point penalty and the certainty of a league title lost.

An intelligent and astute right hand man, McDowall played his part, but believes the debt of gratitude Rangers owe to their manager is incalculable.

'If you give out medals for that kind of stuff Ally should get one,' he states. 'I don’t think there’s anybody who’s had to do what he’s done. There was nobody else.

'Ally was running the whole place. Martin Bain, the chief exec, had left, there wasn’t a board so he was having to call all the shots at various meetings.

Desperate: Administrator Paul Clark had to deal with all cost cutting solutions, including players' wages

'It was very difficult for him as he had to make decisions on things that normally would be made for you. He took on all these different roles and handled them all unbelievably. He’s an intelligent guy, Coisty. That’s what made him able to handle all that.'

For the media the toil of standing outside Murray Park in cold, wind and rain was shared on a rotational basis. Players would train then leave, blacked out car windows obscuring their true emotions.

As McCoist flitted around Glasgow meeting administrators, players and potential saviour, however, the saga became his life. There was a physical price being claimed and it was there, etched on the manager’s face.

'When you’re embroiled in it at that time you can’t really see the toll it’s taking,' McDowall reflects now. 'But we were all feeling it.

'Ally was being stuck up in front of cameras and microphones and he would solve one problem and then get hit with another. He was constantly problem solving.

'I spent many a late night with him in at Murray Park and it was horrendous. It was just constant, all sort of issues cropping up that had to be dealt with and decisions to be made. It was all business stuff, as well as trying to get players ready - which was our actual job.

Donations: The Rangers Fighting Fund have been trying to keep Rangers tradition and history intact

'He was concerned about the girls in the kitchen, the whole staff at Ibrox. He had a lot of people in his thoughts. He didn’t want one person to get sacked from the place.'

For a time redundancies seemed inevitable and unavoidable. Agents came and left Murray Park late into the night. McCoist and one or two players agreed to work for nothing to save the jobs of others, but asking overseas players to accept 75% wage cuts proved a difficult hurdle to cross.

McCoist did his best to assure key players and probably feels now he was treated shabbily by players who then chose to take advantage of TUPE regulations to leave for free last summer. Around every corner there were hammer blows waiting.

'I was like a sounding board for him as he was having to do a lot of stuff upstairs as well,' McDowall recalls. 'He was being moved from pillar to post at that time, and having to juggle a lot of balls.

'But he just managed the club fantastically well, in a business sense more than anything. Me and Durranty were there for him and he knew that.'

Time: Rangers will take several years to return to the Scottish Premier League

When the player wage cuts required to limp through were finally achieved there were other matters. Perplexing, detailed minutae beyond the grasp of business journalists let alone football people.

For McCoist much of the last year has been spent in business meetings. With football authorities, prospective owners, lawyers, administrators and potential signings.

McDowall was no stranger to financial peril in his days as a St Mirren striker, but this was on a level unprecedented in Scottish football.

'There were a few points when I actually wondered ‘how can this continue?’ When is it going to end?

'From administration onwards it was hurdle after hurdle. We didn’t know what league we would be allowed to play in and there was the carry on with players leaving. It was horrific.

'You were left standing in a job that wasn’t really there because you don’t have a team and don’t know who or if you are going to play.

'When you turn up to find six players you know you’re in trouble. Trying to attract players of a good standard when you don’t know what division you’ll be playing in is hard.

'The training ground was probably the only place I remember Ally smiling. That was a low time for everyone. Ally had a lot to contend with.

'The enjoyment was the football side and that was tough as well. We always look at the side as the one that keeps us in a job - winning football matches.

'If something like that can happen to a place like this then nowhere’s safe.

'When it actually happened, that’s when the shock happens because suddenly it’s real and you wonder what’s going to happen. Is the place going to close?'

Clashes: Their chance of playing the biggest teams in Scotland only lies in the cup competitions

Somehow the identity and soul of Rangers survived a near fatality and will mark the first anniversary of their annus horriblis with a documentary on the club TV channel tonight. ‘The Rising; Rangers One Year On’ tells its own tale.

It comes against a backdrop of unrest over performances on the pitch, with McCoist facing questions from those McDowall suspects of harbouring short memories.

'I think he deserves better but the majority are giving him that backing. If you take it back a year to see what he went through for the last 12 months.

'When you sign up to be a manager you know your remit is to sign players and put out a successful. But Ally has been doing 10 people’s jobs. For nothing.

'I hope this year I hope Coisty gets the credit he’s due if and when we manage to win the championship because he deserves some people to come out and say ‘that’s a hell of a job you’ve done.’

The Rising: Rangers One Year On; RangersTV tonight at 7pm. Log on to www.rangerstv.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2278795/Ally-McCoist-Kenny-McDowall-credit-deserve-keeping-Rangers-alive.html#ixzz2KuQ0K0EB

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[Christchurch Rangers 1,229]

you might wanna get your magnifying glass out to read it tho....