McCoist praises unwell Jelavic

Rangers manager Ally McCoist hailed Nikica Jelavic after the forward came off the bench to score and help seal a 2-0 victory over Hearts.

The Croatian striker failed to make the starting XI after suffering with a virus but insisted to his manager that he was fit enough to feature in the squad.

McCoist told reporters: “He did really well because on Friday and Saturday morning to be honest I didn’t think he had any chance of appearing at all.”

“But he has great spirit and he wanted to come and give himself an opportunity.”

“He came to the hotel last night and we locked him away and he got up in the morning and he felt that he could give us something from the bench. And did he not just do that.”

The 49-year-old also went on to hail his side’s away form, insisting that it would need to continue if they wished to win the SPL this season.

“You’ve got to do that to win titles. I don’t think there is any doubt about that,” he said.

“You have to show a great level of consistency away from home. When you look at our league, there are some tough places to go.”

“To win a league campaign anywhere, your away form has to be really solid. At this early stage in the season ours is more than okay.”

“They just take a pride in their defending. I wouldn’t want to tempt fate but they are doing extremely well at this moment in time.”

“We’ve got a good blend of experience and determination – all the qualities you need to defend.”

“To win anything you’ve got to have a solid defence and we feel we’ve got that.”

“Just as importantly we’ve got players who can nick us a goal at the other end so at this moment in time it’s going all right.”