On the football front, Rangers league campaign began with a defeat to newly-relegated Hearts with the Edinburgh club scoring an extra minute winner. Despite embarking on a nine-game unbeaten run in all competitions, a loss at home to Hibernian left the side trailing Hearts by six-points at the top of the league by the end of September. Better news for Rangers was the reaching of the League Cup semi-final after a 1–0 win over St Johnstone, being drawn against Celtic which set up the first Old Firm derby in two years. Nevertheless, the club's title charge was effectively ended in November as the side lost a six-pointer match away to league leaders Hearts leaving them nine points behind. The did bounce back the following week in the Scottish Cup registering a 3–0 win over Scottish Premiership side Kilmarnock, however, in the club's third cup competition the team surrendered a 2–0 lead to lose 3–2 to fellow Championship team Alloa Athletic in the Challenge Cup. Even with the poor league form and exit in the Challenge Cup, there was no indication of significant pressure on manager Ally McCoist. The effect of the club's financial issues as underlined by the interim results that November, proved the catalyst for McCoist's departure as he became unhappy with the number of staff losing their jobs at Rangers. The situation became too much for McCoist and he tendered his resignation on 12 December which was later confirmed to the London Stock Exchange by the club three days later, with McCoist beginning a 12-month notice period. However, he was to serve less than a week of his notice period before being placed on gardening leave by the board, with his assistant manager Kenny McDowall being appointed interim manager until the end of the season.