WALTER SMITH has defended the coaching abilities of his former Rangers assistants Ally McCoist and Kenny McDowall.

The football qualities of both men have been repeatedly called into question by supporters in recent months after a season that saw Rangers fail to live up to expectations in the Championship. McCoist was placed on gardening leave in December and McDowall was removed from his position as interim manager and replaced by Stuart McCall last month.

The exits came after the pair had lead Rangers to the Third Division and League One titles in the last two seasons after McCoist replaced Smith as manager when he stepped down after winning eight major honours during his second spell in the dugout. And the 67-year-old believes the circumstances off the field never allowed his former lieutenants to prove their worth on the touchline.

"The people that I worked with done a terrific job," Smith said. "I know their strengths. Everyone has got strengths and weaknesses and I know theirs.

"I read in the paper that Ally can't manage. He had never managed a football club before, and either had I when I took over. Imagine when you have never managed a football club before going into Rangers and being there for four years under the circumstances they were in.

"People say 'he will ask Walter Smith for advice'. But I had never been in that circumstance before, so how could I give him any advice in terms of how Rangers were being run?

"It is an unfair judgement for people to make on him because of the circumstances. Alistair and Kenny would take a lot of the training, and I read that he couldn't coach.

"Kenny McDowall is a terrific coach. He is excellent at his job and one of the most organised people I have ever worked with. Yet, I hear all these assessments.

"If you don't get results, people make those assessments, but they are not correct.

"For me, the main circumstance is why they didn't work out under Alistair and Kenny, who didn't want to be the manager. The circumstances weren't right."

With a new board now in place at Rangers, the club is a far more stable environment for McCall to work in as he looks to guide his side to promotion this season. After falling well off the pace set by Hearts early in the season and then appearing in danger of dropping out of the top four during McDowall's short reign, Rangers are now on course to finish second in the Championship.

Supporters have returned to Ibrox in their thousands following the regime change in March that saw Dave King, Paul Murray and John Gilligan overthrow the old board and Smith is pleased with the calmer off-field situation.

"I got the support of David Murray when I was manager at Rangers and he was a big help to me," he said. "They (McCoist and McDowall) never had that help, they didn't get any help.

"Stuart has come in at a time when everybody is looking a bit brighter for a change at Rangers. It is a good time for him to come in.

"It certainly wasn't a good time when Alistair took over. Craig Whyte came in and that coincided with Alistair, I felt, not getting a fair opportunity. It is very difficult to judge him as a manager under the circumstances that he worked in. I certainly wouldn't have liked to have worked under them anyway."