McCoist: Our benchmark must be team of 93

Aug 24 2008 By Gavin Berry

ALLY McCOIST still has a copy of a picture that serves as a painful reminder of Rangers' European exit to Levski Sofia 15 years ago.

The photo shows Coisty sitting on a dejected Rangers bench in Bulgaria as Walter Smith's men crash to a shock defeat.

That heartache will never fade from his memory but the Ibrox assistant manager also remembers how Gers showed the character to bounce back and claim a sixth consecutive title that season.

Now he wants the current Ibrox stars to show the same desire tomake up for the Kaunas debacle that sent them spinning out of Europe.

There are similarities between losing to the Bulgarians in 1993 in the first round and this season's exit because both came after brilliant Euro runs - and involved sickening late goals.

McCoist was a player when Levski stunned Gers just months after Smith's side came within a whisker of reaching the European Cup Final.

Rangers won 3-2 at home and were drawing 1-1 in Bulgaria before a scorching last-minute strike from Nikolay Todorov won it for Levski.

Coisty said: "I just remember the sick feeling in my stomach and if I think about it long enough I can feel that nausea again.

"I still have a picture of Archie Knox with his head sunk into the ground. Everyone else on the bench has their heads in their hands.

"It was an outrageous defeat but when you don't have European nights to look forward to you focus on the title.

"It's the same with Kaunas. If you don't remember it you don't get any benefit and there's every chance it could happen again. I'll never forget Levski - and Kaunas was just as bad.

"European nights are special so we have to win the league and make sure we have them next year.

"Anyone can be a Rangers player when we're winning.

But you find out who the real Rangers players are when things aren't going well."

Gers have brought in new faces since the Euro exit and McCoist hopes American Maurice Edu can hit the ground running.

The Ibrox No.2 spent time across the Atlantic this summer and met up with former Rangers team-mate Maurice Johnston who is now general manager at Edu's old club Toronto.

Coisty said: "I spent two days in Toronto with wee Mo which is more than adequate for any man!

"He said the standard in the MLS has vastly improved.

"In a lot of the games we watched, Edu was used as a holding midfield player.

"And in the Olympic matches he even went back to centre-half a couple of times.

"But Edu says he's a box-to-box midfielder. And the last one of those I remember here was Ian Durrant who was one of the best.

"If he's box-to-box in any way like Ian, I'll take it.

"There's a lot of talent in North America and you just have to look at the progress their game has made. It's a country on the up andwe have one of their top stars."

McCoist hopes new signings like Edu and Pedro Mendes can add more quality to Gers - but still wants to see the fighting spirit of last season's campaign.

He said: "It's important the new players have that same mentality. The desire to win should be guaranteed here.

"Talent isn't as important as the desire to win, the tenacity. That's why the greatest athletes can be beaten if they don't show tenacity and desire all the time.

"If it was just a game then the best would win simply all the time."