Ally McCoist admitted that the players who gave Rangers a temporary lift yesterday may never appear together again as the club braces itself for redundancies this week.
The Rangers manager was delighted with the 4-1 defeat of Caledonian Thistle in Inverness as Steven Davis, Sone Aluko, Andrew Little and Lee McCulloch scored in a rout. But earlier Paul Clark, joint administrator with Duff and Phelps, was quoted saying that there would be imminent job losses at Rangers as the club faced brutal cost-cutting measures to avoid liquidation.
Any day now, the administrators will announce how many jobs are at risk and if players will be made to leave. Director of football Gordon Smith and chief operating officer Ali Russell have both accepted redundancy and will leave this week.
"There isn't any point me having meetings with the players until I have something to tell them," said McCoist, who praised Clark for being honest and accessible so far.
"I am part of the staff. I'm no different, albeit higher up the pecking order. I haven't heard that [that further redundancies are inevitable]. There have been job losses already, we shouldn't forget that. Paul has certainly not told me that people will be going but I'm not daft enough to think there won't have to be cuts here or there."
McCoist accepted it was possible that some of those who played in Inverness could lose their jobs. "Hopefully it won't happen, that goes without saying, but if it does, we'll discuss that. Today was about putting a smile back on the faces of everyone at the club, be it the travelling support, the workforce, the coaching staff, the secretaries at Murray Park and Ibrox.
"We've been battered and bruised, but we're certainly not down and we're far from out. I thought the spirit and the willingness to help each other, and to give the entire club a boost, was really evident."
Man of the match Davis said: "There's been so much negativity surrounding the club recently that it's a bit of a release to be honest, getting out on the pitch. During the week there's a lot of things going on and it's maybe hard to get away from it. But playing is what we enjoy.
"It's the uncertainty surrounding the club that's difficult to take. It's probably been as difficult a time as any to come in as captain, but it's something I enjoy doing and I'm very proud to wear the armband."
Terry Butcher, the Inverness manager, will have his players in for training at 10am today, and they'll get no days off this week, in response to their poor display. "Rangers deserve a lot of credit given the circumstances," he said. "But everything about the game was poor from our point of view. It was a sea of negatives."
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