Ally McCoist has defended the training regime and level of professionalism at Rangers after the fall-out from losing to Annan Athletic.

Some fans were fiercely critical of the defeat and their mood darkened further when midfielder Kyle Hutton posted an ill-advised tweet at lunchtime on Tuesday saying that he was "off home to finish off Homeland". Many took that as evidence the players were not working hard enough and had too much time off.

But, ahead of today's Irn-Bru Third Division match at Elgin City, McCoist firmly defended how the club is run. "There's not a team in the world that works 9-5pm," he said. "Our training hasn't changed much in the last 30 years. We didn't do too much or too little, just enough for the game. That's the job of every coach as you don't want to undertrain or overtrain players. There's a balance.

"If you are winning every game comfortably and playing fantastically, it's not an issue. Very seldom would someone say 'you're not training hard enough' after that 5-0 victory. The defeat at the weekend brings up questions."

McCoist insisted that he would not give is players extra sessions, or bring them in on a Sunday, simply out of spite. "If you do that and run them as a punishment, like clubs maybe did in 1960, the first thing you end up with is about four injuries. You can't just go negative, negative, negative.

"Don't think for a minute I'd be slow to punish anybody that needs punishing, that has happened and will continue to happen. But I'm not one for knee-jerk, needless punishment. I certainly wouldn't do it for spite. If it was going to benefit the team or certain individuals, I would do it. Of course I would."

Rangers have advised their players on the dangers of social media, specifically Twitter and Facebook, and the squad was given guidance by the police. McCoist will not ban the players from posting on such sites but said players should be governed by common sense before they leave a message that can be seen by the general public.

"I have said on numerous occasions they have to know their responsibilities and pay due care and attention to what they write on these websites. What they write is picked up instantly. In a normal week it [what Hutton posted] was a nothing message but it's the context of it coming after a defeat [to Annan]. He's posed himself a problem with a throwaway line."

Rangers's game at Elgin City is the earliest kick-off in the division today and a win would put them 20 points clear. But Dean Shiels will not feature for the rest of the term because of a knee injury.