MARK WARBURTON, the Rangers manager, voiced his exasperation over fresh links with the vacant position at Fulham on a night in which the roof came off at Ibrox and the roof fell in on Dumbarton.

The 53-year-old Englishman is said to be high on the SkyBet Championship club’s wishlist with both Reading head coach Steve Clarke understood to have turned them down and Birmingham City having announced that their manager, Gary Rowett, is staying put.

Warburton is aware of the flurry of stories that did the rounds as Rangers recorded a 4-0 league win over Dumbarton through second half goals from Jason Holt, Martyn Waghorn, Nathan Oduwa and Andy Halliday that came after hundreds of supporters had to be moved from the Sandy Jardine Stand to the front of the Broomloan Stand after security staff had spotted a loose piece of roofing fabric above them during the half-time interval.

However, he has already stated that he has no intention of moving on at this stage of the rebuilding process at Rangers and has asked for a break from the now-relentless speculation.

“I can’t answer questions,” he said. “I think I need a bit of respect.

“I answered the question. It’s disrespectful to me, Rangers and also to Fulham. I am sure a club of that stature conducts its business in the right way.

“I can’t keep saying it. I am manager of Rangers Football Club. I’ve developed a young squad here, developed staff, brought staff in and I am in the middle of a project.

“I think it is really disrespectful. I can’t keep answering the same question.”

It certainly took a while for his team to answer the questions asked of them during this encounter.

Dumbarton made their position clear from the off, fielding Steven Craig up front on his own and packing five men into midfield. This is the way of things for Rangers in most of their games these days and it did make life difficult for the duration of the opening period.

Lee Wallace was given license, as usual, to gallivant up the left for the home side and forced an excellent save from Mark Brown after just 10 minutes. Barrie McKay played a delicate ball over the top, his captain took a touch and released an angled drive from around 11 yards that Brown did ever so well to divert past the far post.

Dumbarton stayed organised, though, endeavouring to hit on the counterattack whenever possible. Grant Gallagher did open up an opportunity for himself when knocking the ball through Rob Kiernan’s legs at the edge of the penalty box and moving into a shooting position.

He released a weak, low effort under pressure from Dominic Ball, which proved easy meat for Foderingham. Gallagher was convinced, however, that Ball had committed a foul in challenging him and was left furious by referee Crawford Allan’s refusal to point to the spot.

Ball, himself, had reason to be angry at the official just after the half-hour when going down in the area under a tackle from Steven Saunders after cutting in from the left side. He also felt he should have been awarded a penalty-kick.

Allan, in a good position to view the incident, felt otherwise and a pushing match between the on-loan Rangers centre-back and Mark Docherty quickly ensued. Perhaps a little surprisingly, no-one managed to do enough to make their way into the book.

Certainly, Warburton and his assistant, David Weir, felt such disquiet over elements of Allan’s display that they felt compelled to wait for the officials as they left the pitch.

The frisson of confrontation was welcome, really, with the first half having trundled to a halt. Nicky Clark had been denied by Brown shortly before the interval when getting his head to a cross from James Tavernier, but, for all the possession Rangers had enjoyed, this was not exactly a siege.

“We had a few words as a group at half-time,” said Warburton. “Despite lots of possession, we weren’t good enough. We were loose, took too many touches, didn’t move it quickly enough and didn’t show the quality we demand from the group day in, day out.

“We had the words, came out and Jason Holt used the term night and day. I think he was pretty accurate with that. We were excellent and, respectfully, could have got more than four goals.”

The 10-minute delay in starting the second half could have been read as something of an inconvenience for a Rangers side struggling to build up a head of steam. As it was, that time spent standing around on the field of play appeared to focus minds.

Within one minute and 21 seconds of the restart, the opener arrived. McKay fed the ball out right to Tavernier, he delivered the most tantalising of crosses into the centre and Holt lost his man to beat Brown with a glancing header and score his third goal in three outings.

On the hour-mark, Waghorn eased any remaining nerves with his 19th of the campaign. Rangers had broken upfield from a Dumbarton free-kick with Gedion Zelalem finally moving the ball onto the former Wigan centre-forward at the edge of the area and watching in admiration as he bent a terrific effort past Brown with the inside of his left foot.

Tavernier hit the bar with a header from a Wallace cross and substitute Jordan Thompson forced another fine save from Brown before Kenny Miller, on for McKay, fed Wallace on the left and saw Oduwa, on for Waghorn, rob him of his moment of glory by pinching the ball off his toe from the resultant cross and converting from close range.

With five minutes remaining, Dumbarton’s night was complete. Saunders was red-carded for bringing down Wallace in the box and Halliday beat Brown to his right from the spot to score his first goal at Ibrox at the Copland Road end, the neighbourhood he grew up in.

Rangers (4-3-3): Foderingham; Tavernier, Kiernan, Ball, Wallace; Halliday, Holt, Zelalem (Thompson 62); Waghorn (Oduwa 77), Clark, McKay (Miller 62).

Dumbarton (4-5-1): M. Brown; Saunders, Barr, Wright, Docherty; Fleming, Routledge (S. Brown 63), Gallagher, Cawley (Lindsay 63), Gibson; Craig (Brophie 67). Booked: Saunders (16).

Referee: Crawford Allan.

Attendance: 37,182.