Kenny McDowall: 'Rangers are not cowards.'

And there is no shortage of volunteers after the hammering at Easter Road last week.

The temptation for anyone with a connection to the first team would be to hide. Kenny McDowall, instead, sits inside the well-appointed training centre and faces the questions. He does not duck.

"We're not cowards,'' he says. "I don't accept that the players are lacking heart.''

This is the most telling comment from a naturally quiet man who has chosen to face the clamour. McDowall has been labelled as the wrong man and at the wrong time for Rangers. He is respected as a coach in the game but there is a body of opinion that insists he is not a manager. The only evidence for this assertion is limited but powerful. It lies in that 90-minutes plus at Easter Road where his side was demolished 4-0.

Yet the caretaker manager showed strength in removing Ian Black, who was sprinting towards a red card, and by his subsequent reaction to a dramatic afternoon. McDowall is open about responsibility but will not accept charges that his players lack commitment or skill.

Of Easter Road, he says: "We didn't get off to the best of starts at the weekend. What happened in the rest of the game was a reaction to the start. We just got caught in the headlights after the start we made and it threw our preparations out the window.''

But he does not allow the claims of "empty jerseys'' to go unchallenged.

"In that dressing room we've got a good bunch of lads and they've done great for us,'' he says. "I wouldn't sit here and have a go. They are willing to work hard and they want to go and win games. They want to try and get promotion."

He conceded that "off-field issues have affected the players" but he says that in response to a question rather than offering it as an excuse.

Confidence, he admits, is low. But he adds: "I don't have confidence in wee jars that I can hand out to them. It comes with hard work and working for each other on the park. The guys know that and they have been here long enough to know what's accepted here. You've got to win, that's the bottom line.''

But he insists a revival in form is well within the capabilities of his squad.

"They are not being asked to do anything that's uncomfortable for them,'' he says. "They grow up wanting to be football players and that's what we're asking them to do. Go out there and do well. They are here because they are good players, this is Glasgow Rangers. It's not everyone who gets to come to Glasgow Rangers. They are here because they are very good players.''

He adds, with the benefit of painful experience: "If you don't then there's flak coming your way and you have to handle it."

McDowall spent his playing career at Partick Thistle and St Mirren but has been in an Old Firm coaching job since 1997 when he joined Celtic. He spent 10 years at Parkhead before being recruited by Walter Smith at Rangers.

In publicity terms, he has always been a quiet figure but he has held an influential role on the training ground. The step-up to manager was sudden following Ally McCoist's resignation and his subsequent 'gardening leave'.

"I've not been at the sharp end but I have certainly watched people who've been at the sharp end, I have been around them,'' he says.

"I've been on Ally's wing for four years and I was really close to him - I know a lot that went on and how he handled things. That in itself, has helped me. Did I expect to find myself in this position? No, not really. But I have to do the best I can do for the club, I have to try and motivate the players and get us back to winning ways.''

At 51, with a lifetime in football behind him, he has been buffeted by the abruptness of his change of circumstances but sustained by his experience

"Nothing prepares you for being in the hot-seat,'' he says. "Bang, you're right in it, and nothing can prepare you for that. If I was taking this on as a younger coach then it might be an issue for me but I am more experienced now. I've been about for a while and I just need to do the best I can."

That 'best' must include finding was way to achieve promotion with a squad that is short of confidence and may be even shorter of players shortly. Lewis Macleod has gone. Others may follow. Rangers, needing £8.3m to survive the season, cannot refuse any offer even as a campaign goes on to gain power at the club.

The Three Bears of George Letham, George Taylor and Douglas Park may now seek more shares. McDowall craves three points at Ibrox today.

"We have a tricky game against Dumbarton. Ian Murray has done a good job and I don't see it being anything other than tough,'' he says.

The team and the manager have had an inquest on the debacle at Easter Road. He says: "The players have taken responsibility, I've taken responsibility, end of.''

It all begins again this afternoon. Only a victory will save McDowall and his players from the stocks.