McCoist keen for strikers to play

Posted Sunday, February 07, 2010 by PA

Ally McCoist had hoped Rangers would be cruising into the Active Nation Scottish Cup quarter-finals by the time star strikers Kris Boyd and Kenny Miller made their comebacks against St Mirren.

Instead, the Scotland stars were thrown into the action when the fifth-round tie was still deadlocked and neither side managed to find the winning goal. Boyd's return from a hernia operation, in particular, was highly anticipated and, although Rangers had to settle for an Ibrox replay, McCoist believes both players will benefit from their run-out in Paisley on Saturday.

The Rangers number two confirmed the pre-match plan was to swap Kyle Lafferty and Steven Naismith for the regular strike duo, and admitted: "We didn't create an awful lot more than when the boys went on, to be fair to the two lads who were on. We just wanted to give them an opportunity, especially Boydy who is back from a difficult double hernia. You don't want to rush them."

He added: "In an ideal situation we planned to get them on at some stage - which we did do - but we hoped we would be 2-0 or 3-0 up. That wasn't the case and they had to go on at 0-0.

"They both did fine and will both benefit from that experience."

Madjid Bougherra also made his first appearance since the end of December after returning from international duty with Algeria at the African Nations Cup, and he plugged the gap left by the suspended David Weir to great effect.

McCoist continued: "You know what you get from Madjid, he has a stature and a presence. I thought he did two things bordering on brilliance.

"He had a bit of magic on the right wing and put the ball across and then cleared off the line and defended well. He is a player that any team would miss."