Dean Shiels Cup Final, which Kilmarnock won after beating Celtic 1–0. Shiels was shortlisted for the SPFA Players' Player of the Year award, along with Jon Daly, Steven Davis and Charlie Mulgrew. Shiels rejected the offer of a new contract with Kilmarnock and left the club at the end of the season. Shiels signed for Rangers on 31 July 2012. Kilmarnock's chairman Michael Johnson believes Rangers had underestimate Kilmarnock to get Shiels. Shiels vowed to make the club win a trophy this season and revealed he turned down clubs around Europe, which he could even play in the Champions League; instead, preferring
Kenny Shiels Securely in charge, Shiels led the club to an 8–0 drubbing of Newry Town in the next match, the second of what proved to be a twenty match unbeaten league run. With his younger brother Sammy Shiels, who had played under Kenny Shiels' management at Carrick, leading the line in scoring 25 league goals, Coleraine won the title, and thus promotion, a full fifteen points ahead of runners-up Ballymena United. The club would also win the inaugural Irish News Cup, a competition for Irish League and League of Ireland clubs in North-West Ireland, that same season. The following season began