FORMER Rangers star Andy Little believes Ally McCoist deserves his share of credit if the Ibrox side win their Premiership play-off shoot-out.

The Northern Ireland international has just helped his Preston North End side into the Championship after they thrashed Swindon Town in the play-offs at Wembley.

Little - who left Ibrox last summer after failing to agree a new deal - will try and return to Scotland this week to watch his former side against Motherwell, as they do battle for a place in the Premiership on Thursday and Sunday.

He's delighted the club is in new hands under Dave King, but admits to being saddened at the plight of McCoist, who remains on gardening leave on full pay and whose managerial qualities have been openly questioned due to the relative success of Stuart McCall.

And the forward is quick to spring to McCoist's defence.

Little said: "The gaffer, as I call him, did a great job. When he came in he kept the team together, kept the club together in far worse times than they have had lately.

"He deserves credit for that.

"Unfortunately, the results and performances weren't as good as he would have liked, so maybe it was understandable something had to change.

"He did a very good job of keeping the club together when I don't think any man could have done as well as him.

"Obviously, I left the club in the end, but there are no hard feelings between him and me and I think he did a great job.

And Little, who spent seven years at Ibrox playing at all levels from the top flight to the Third Division and netted an impressive tally of 34 goals in just 48 league starts, is thrilled his own club are back on steady ground.

He may have moved to Lancashire, but the 26-year-old still has Rangers - the club he refers to as 'we' - in his blood.

He stated: "The club needed that stability. It didn't matter how the team were doing, if you didn't have that stability at the very top it was never going to progress.

"But hopefully now the club are under Dave King and his board, there's good Rangers people there. Obviously, making John Greig Honorary Life President is a major boost for the club too.

"It's good for fans like myself to know there are good Rangers men at the heart of the club who want the best for the club."

Little is confident of a Rangers win this week to make it a double celebration for him.

He pointed out: "I think having a home and away tie helps us because we have already proved we can go and gain a big advantage at home and then do a job away from home.

"Hopefully, next week I'll have another promotion party to celebrate. It couldn't be any better for me really because the club I am playing for has got promoted and the club I support will hopefully get promoted too. The perfect week!

"I'm hoping to get up to the games, but it depends on what the club have planned and what the celebrations are.

"Obviously, it was slightly disappointing not to get a game, but I played my part and certainly enjoyed the celebrations afterwards."

Little missed out on the Wembley triumph as the Deepdale club finally won a play-off at the tenth time of asking and moved up to English football's second tier.

But he has no regrets at joining Preston, despite a frustrating campaign admits has made it a stop-start season for him.

He said: "It was great to be a part of the celebrations, but it's been a frustrating season for me personally.

"I couldn't have started the season any better - I was in the team and scoring goals, but I got one injury after another and that's been the problem.

"Once I came back, I had to try and get into a team that went on a run of 18 games undefeated so that was always going to be difficult.

"I came here to join a team who were hopefully going to get promoted and that's why I signed for Preston and, although this season hasn't gone well for me, the goal was to get into the Championship.

"Next season is a fresh start for me and I'm hoping to make an impact.

"I don't see any reason why we can't kick on next season and have a real go. We've played Championship teams in the Cup and matched them and beaten them.

"For me, it's a big summer and I'll come back ready to go."