Ally McCoist absolves 'excellent' Rangers performer from blame in damaging Ross County defeat

Ally McCoist has given just ONE Rangers player pass marks after Sunday's horror show in the Highlands.

Gers crashed to a catastrophic 3-2 defeat in Dingwall as Ross County recorded a historic first-ever win over the Ibrox side at the 25th attempt. The shock result has severely damaged Philippe Clement's hopes of wrestling back the league crown from Celtic, who stretched their lead at the top to four points at the weekend. The Light Blues can trim the deficit to a single point if they win their long-awaited game in hand against Dundee tomorrow, but McCoist admits he was left scunnered by the latest twist in the title race.

McCoist was teased by talkSPORT Jeff Sterling yesterday after the popular pundit was missing from his usual breakfast slot. Host Sterling had joked: "A lot of you are asking where Ally McCoist is this morning. Well, Ross County 3 Rangers 2 explains everything. Ross County play in Dingwall by the way. Population 5,500 and they have never, ever, ever beaten Rangers."

Gutted McCoist admitted he'd still not recovered from the crushing defeat but absolved Jack Butland from any blame - despite the goalkeeper copping flak for at least one of the Staggies' goals.

He said: "I think to be fair I will be the one who decides whether I have recovered. It will take at least, I would imagine, another 72 hours before I am over that, but fair play to Ross County who incidentally were tremendous and we weren't.

"Thoroughly deserved. They went about it and it was one of these games you watch and can see it coming from the word go. They were hungrier, effectively wanted it more and if it wasn't for Jack Butland again it wouldn't have been as close. He had another excellent game."