LEAGUE tables, by their very definition, deal in cold, hard facts.

One glimpse of the current SPFL Championship standings offers much of what you require to figure out why Ally McCoist is now faced, ahead of the growing season, with the choice between Bougainvillea or Dahlia rather than Boyd or Daly.

Rangers, with all that tradition and expectation in addition to the second-highest wage bill in the country, are 12 points behind Hearts in the SPFL Championship. This is the same Hearts that were in administration just over six months ago.

Of course, nothing connected, no matter how loosely, to Ibrox these days is entirely black and white.

McCoist is, ultimately, out on gardening leave from his £14,000-a-week post as manager because it somehow seems possible that Rangers will not now return to the Premiership at the first time of asking and that, whatever may be going on in the background, is as unthinkable as it is unacceptable.

However, even his biggest critics must concede that he did have a quite preposterous torrent of nonsense to contend with during the course of his three-and-a-half years in charge.

Lee McCulloch went through all of it beside him, from Craig Whyte leading the club to the brink of oblivion, most of the first-team showing that they did do walking away and Charles Green turning the place into a bigger circus than ever as ringmaster-in-chief to the current situation where the boardroom, once a place of reverence, has been fitted with a revolving door for the purposes of convenience.

Throughout all those ignominies and more, McCoist served as the public face of the club. Although his team has not stood up to scrutiny since the issue of the football, itself, has slowly edged closer to centre-stage in recent months, the role he performed in tandem behind the scenes in an institution collapsing around his ears clearly left a strong impression on those who depended most upon for him for guidance.

McCulloch still becomes a little misty-eyed when talking about McCoist in his absence. It does not take the greatest leap of imagination to guess how he must have reacted when the man himself appeared for the final time in front of the staff last Monday to say his goodbyes.

McCoist was already the club captain's hero when he joined Rangers from Wigan Athletic in 2007. If anything, the events of the past few years have increased his admiration. McCulloch has come to choose his words carefully when addressing the scandal of Rangers' mismanagement, but his remarks about McCoist come across as warm and entirely genuine.

"He was a buffer for all the pressure and took it on his own shoulders, keeping the players away from all the stuff that was going on," recalled McCulloch. "In that sense, he was brilliant.

"I did not see it having an effect on him.

"It shows the strength of character that he has got and the mental strength he had to take all the pressure off the playing squad. It speaks volumes for the man.

"We had a meeting (on Monday) and it was pretty emotional. A few of the boys were upset, as you would expect, and I was pretty upset myself. That's about eight-and-a-half years I have worked with Ally and it was emotional to see him leave.

"We are all big boys and everyone knows that time doesn't stop for anyone. He is going to be missed and there is a game on Saturday that everybody has got to be focused on.

"However, Ally did loads for me and my career. He was my hero before I came here, watching him play as a Rangers fan.

"I found it a little bit tough at the start of my stint here as a player, but he stuck by me, which gave me confidence, and then he appointed me captain as well."

McCulloch might have been expected to make a speech on behalf of the players in his role as captain. He chose not to. As he points out, McCoist's departure was more personal than that for the players in the locker-room.

"He had the meeting and I know a few of the boys had one-to-ones with him afterwards," revealed McCulloch. "A few wanted to phone him. I didn't really feel the need for a collective thing because I knew all the boys wanted to thank him personally. I did that myself."

And don't dare suggest to McCulloch, for a second, that the legend McCoist built up through 15 years and 355 goals as a Rangers player has been somehow tainted by a very mixed spell as manager.

"He is a hero, a club legend and, in my opinion, one of the greatest-ever Rangers," he said.

Kenny McDowall, promoted to caretaker manager during last weekend's coaching reshuffle, has already stated that he wants to win the SPFL Championship as a tribute to McCoist. McCulloch, now first-team coach as well as skipper, shares that ambition.

"Firstly, I think we do it for ourselves and the fans," he said. "Obviously, we are going to do it for Kenny. However, there will be a sense that we have to do it for Ally as well. That is spot-on."

There is little question the current squad failed to deliver for McCoist when he was in the job. McCulloch appears to accept that and realises the need for greater consistency in terms of results and performances with so much now hanging on the remainder of the current campaign.

"I've already said that it is maybe just a willingness to go and fight for each other," he said. "After the defeat to Queen of the South, I said that we had to look in the mirror and ask if we had done enough individually and collectively.

"We got a reaction in the game against Livingston and got three points. We are just looking to gather some momentum.

"There is only one way that we can react to what has happened and that is positively."

Of all the differing opinions over McCoist's reign and the nature of its end, there are some hard facts that no-one can dispute. That is one of them.