Bashful Ally McCoist has delivered a media masterclass dismissing any notion that he’s about to quit the Sevco hotseat.
Almost every Scottish news-outlet carried the story today that the managers job was on the line but that the club couldn’t afford a pay-off that averaged out at around £1.5m.
Wednesday’s defeat at Alloa in the Petrofec Training Challenge Cup seems to have sent sections of the Ibrox support into a frenzy of dissent but the man who won’t walk away is unconcerned by their reactions.
McCoist’s cv includes cup defeats from Malmo, Forfar Athletic and Queens of the South with the former Question of Sport skipper prepared to take more defeats on the chin as he chases his Champions League dream.
During today’s media conference he made reference to his side suffering hiccups but stated that one more defeat won’t break him as a manager.
As ever McCoist gave contradictory statements in every sentence revealing that he hadn’t read all of the newspapers but being able to comment on the reports of boardroom unrest.
Asked if he still had the backing of the directors he replied: “Absolutely yeah, I haven’t heard otherwise. I imagine that question has been asked following some of the comments in some of the newspapers this morning.
“I haven’t read them all but nobody has told me otherwise that I don’t have the support of the board. I don’t feel the need to seek reassurance.”
With Hearts sitting nine points clear at the top of the Championship and the team playing in front of dwindling crowds McCoist has his work cut out to achieve promotion assuming that the club isn’t liquidated next month.
Two draws and four defeats from Hearts, Hibs and Alloa suggest that the highly paid Ibrox stars are out of their depth in the second tier but McCoist is prepared for more defeats along the journey.
“I’ve said all along the job is to get the team back to the top flight, where we feel we belong,” he added. “That hasn’t altered, my focus hasn’t altered. I was aware it would be a bumpy ride with a few hiccups along the way and that is proving to be the case but we can’t allow ourselves to shift our focus away from getting back to the top flight.
“One more defeat certainly won’t be the breaking point for me. You have got to be strong and you’ve got to be focused. That will always be the case for me.
“Have I lost the confidence of the fans? No, no. As you would fully expect and understand, there has been a lot of discontent and unhappiness with Wednesday’s result. I totally understand and respect that but you always get a reaction from poorer results.
“We are extremely disappointed and shocked at the last 20 minutes on Wednesday but we have to find a middle-ground to both results and not lose focus.
“Everybody has times in their job that are not so good. Wednesday was one of those, to put it mildly but you do come back to earth and realise that you can’t lose your focus.”