Tuesday 16 September 2014 23:23, UK
Rangers manager Ally McCoist insists he will not heap pressure on Lewis Macleod by needlessly over-hyping the youngster.
The Scotland U21 international handed Rangers their first win against top-flight opposition in two years when he fired in a deflected 78th-minute winner to seal a 1-0 League Cup success over Inverness at Ibrox.
The 20-year-old’s fifth goal of the season set up a third-round trip to Falkirk next week and secured a seventh successive victory for the Championship side.
"Lewis is terrific,” said McCoist. “We asked him to contribute more goals and assists and that little bit more of a killer instinct. He's certainly given us that.
"How far can he go? He's a good young player and that's probably all I'd say at the moment. In history Rangers have had great young players coming through and I hope he goes on and does as well as some of them.
"It's just great to have him back. I'm not putting any pressure on him after the time he has had but it's just great to see him back and entertaining our fans. They are clearly taking him to their hearts and rightly so."
A crowd of only 15,208 turned out at Ibrox amid a number of worrying stories about the club’s situation off the field.
McCoist said: "I want the stadium full, of course I do. I am the manager of the team and the fuller the stadium the better. But I can understand what's going on.
"I'm doing my level best not to get involved in it. I can't have a bearing but what I can have a bearing on is picking teams and getting results like we did tonight."
Inverness boss John Hughes felt his side did not deserve to lose the game.
"We were well in the game," he said. "Rangers weren't any better than us, that's for sure.
"They swung a lot of balls into the box but in terms of playing football and ball retention I felt we were the better team.
"We came down here to take their scalp but if you look at the Rangers team it's full of SPL players who have been there and done it.
"It only takes one goal to win a game and unfortunately tonight it fell for Rangers. We need to dust ourselves down and go again."
