JOHN Brown watched Walter Smith get pelters after his Rangers team drew with a Barcelona side many believe to be the greatest of all time.

So he is not at all surprised his former team-mate Ally McCoist is feeling the heat after failing to win an away game in the Irn-Bru Third Division this season.

Serious questions are starting to be asked of McCoist following the Ibrox club's dire run of results on the road in the league.

His team have drawn with Peterhead, Berwick Rangers and Annan – and lost 1-0 to bottom-placed Stirling Albion at Forthbank in their last competitive outing 11 days ago.

Some fans are starting to wonder if Light Blues legend McCoist is, despite all he has been put through during his turbulent time in charge, is the right man to have at the helm.

Brown, though, remains totally convinced his old friend has the strength of character and coaching nous to ride out the storm and lead the Govan club to promotion.

"These are tough times for Coisty," he admitted. "But through the period of time that I played with him, in the nine-in-a-row years, there was nobody more determined to get results or more committed to the club's cause in the dressing-room.

"Whenever we had blips or bad results, he picked people up and put smiles on their faces. But he was a ruthless guy, too. He could mix it up with the best of them and I know he has taken that quality from the playing side into management.

"I don't think anyone could have foreseen the situation Ally was going to have in his first manager's job. The situations he has had, Craig Whyte's takeover, the club going into administration, the club going down to the Third Division, have been very hard to handle.

"But I'm confident he will see it through. Results at home have been fine. He knows himself results on the road have been unacceptable.

"Walter Smith said it months ago. Rangers in the Third Division are going to have to win games home and away. I am sure Ally will be working tirelessly to bring that to fruition."

Brown added: "Ally has played at international level and at the highest level in Europe and has won many, many trophies. He will deal with every situation.

"Walter Smith was one of Rangers' greatest managers, but even he had difficult spells when he got slaughtered for being too negative.

"I remember when Rangers drew 0-0 with Barcelona at Ibrox in the Champions League in 2007. He had every man behind the ball. It was the right tactic for his team against the quality of the opposition.

"But he was slaughtered for getting a point against the Spanish giants. I remember him getting slaughtered by fans in the stand for his players not getting over the halfway line.

"But the Rangers team I was a member of in the 1992/93 season would have struggled to get over the halfway line against that Barca side.

"It is just the way of it sometimes at Rangers. You get a few fans grumbling and then things take off from there. Neil Lennon at Celtic was getting it down at Kilmarnock last term and he turned it around.

"Ally has got the hardest job of any Rangers manager in history. The fans must give him time and look deeper than results on the park."

Brown, who left his postition as a scout at Rangers in the summer after the consortium fronted by English businessman Charles Green took over, feels that McCoist's job has been made difficult by the size and quality of the squad he has had to work with.

With a year-long signing ban – imposed by the SFA for the misdemeanours of the Craig Whyte regime – looming, the Gers manager wanted to bring in six new players before the close of the transfer window on August 31.

He got just two – Hearts winger David Templeton and little-known Australian midfielder Francesco Stella.

Further, he lost captain and centre-half Carlos Bocanegra when the US internationalist went to Racing Santander on loan for the season.

But he still thinks Rangers, who take on Glasgow rivals Queen's Park at Ibrox on Saturday in a derby that is certain to be a total sell-out, will win the Third Division title come next May.

Brown added: "I think Rangers will win the league. They are just a couple of points off top spot just now. They will win the league and get promotion in my opinion.

"If Ally can't get it then he will get the sack. He knows that. But he has to get to see the season out. Let's see where Rangers are come February or March.

"But I think Coisty has been let down. He cannot sign a player for another year. They should have got another four or five players in.

"They aren't going to be able to sign anybody for money for an 18-month period, so they had to get a few signings in and they didn't do that."