Rangers need to buy, says McCoist

Rangers manager Ally McCoist claims the Ibrox side need reinforcements in attack after losing top spot to Old Firm rivals Celtic.

After a Joe Ledley header claimed all three points for the Parkhead side to secure top spot in the SPL, McCoist spoke about the need to strengthen in order not to get cut adrift.

“I’ve gone on record to say that we need to strengthen in the forward areas,” he told Sky Sports.

“Especially with losing (Steven) Naismith and (Kyle) Lafferty has been suffering from a bit of an injury, so we certainly could do (with) strengthening in forward areas, for that there is no doubt.”

Asked if he would be willing to sacrifice Nikica Jelavic in order to finance any deals, McCoist said: “Would I (sell Jelavic)? Not really to be honest with you, you want to keep all your best players, most managers would and I’m no different.”

McCoist said he was extremely disappointed with the loss to Celtic, having held a 15-point gap over their rivals during the season.

“It’s a big disappointment, of that there’s no doubt and the game itself I didn’t think there was an awful lot in it really,” he said.

“I don’t think conditions helped the standard of the game, I felt the defences were pretty solid and certainly in games like that it takes one chance to win it and unfortunately I didn’t go out way.”

McCoist believed Lee Wallace’s early effort crossed the line, though referee Willie Collum failed to award the goal.

“I knew it was close, but obviously from the angle that we’re at we couldn’t tell either way,” he said.

“But we did look at the reaction of one or two of our players and they certainly felt it was over, I don’t think there’s any doubt it was over, but sometimes you get them, sometimes you don’t and we didn’t get that one.”

Despite trailing Celtic going into the new year, McCoist was refusing to give up on the title just yet.

“I did say before the game that going into the New Year, whoever wins the game it doesn’t necessary win you the league, that’s for sure,” he said.

“But having said that I would have rather won the game, but there’s still two points in it and we’ve got absolutely everything to play for, the effort and the commitment of the team today was encouraging.”

“But we can do better when we have the ball and we can play better, but there’s still a long way, we’re halfway through in this championship no and a long, long way to go.”