Rangers will win the title, says Barry Ferguson

Rangers have won 10 of their 15 league games this season

Former Rangers captain Barry Ferguson is backing his old team-mate Ally McCoist to steer the club to the Championship title.

With the Ibrox side trailing Hearts by nine points, manager McCoist has come in for flak from some supporters.

"He knows better than anybody the pressure he's under," Ferguson told BBC Scotland. "He grew up a Rangers fan and came to the club when he was young.

"I still firmly believe they will win the league."

Ferguson, in his first full season as a manager at League Two Clyde, has been impressed with Hearts, who are yet to lose a game in the Championship.

And Rangers have been less than convincing, losing twice to the men in maroon as well as at home to Hibernian, while there have been draws home and away with Alloa, who recently came from 2-0 down to dump the Ibrox side out of the Petrofac Training Cup.

However, Ferguson, whose Ibrox career overlapped with McCoist's for two seasons, believes the Edinburgh team will have a wobble at some stage of the season.

"Hearts are still to go through a sticky patch," added the 36-year-old.

"The league doesn't lie. I've seen Hearts three or four times this season and they've been the best team, without a doubt.

"But they are a new team, a young team as well, so once they get a dodgy result it might affect them and that's when Rangers have got to take advantage.

"It's nine points and we're only in the middle of December. There is still a long, long way to go."