Trivial sporting concerns are put into perspective by Rangers supporters bus tragedy

Shortly after the Ladbrokes Premiership fixture had ended, it was confirmed that one fan had died in a tragic road accident in Ayrshire which had also left 18 people in hospital.

Read more: Rangers defender Senderos facing trial by television after Partick match

It was desperately sad news which stunned the whole of Scottish football and united it in grief. No one should ever go to a football match and not return home.

“It’s shocking,” said Rangers goalkeeper Wes Foderingham . “The game had finished before we knew anything about it.

“It’s so sad and I don’t really know what to say if I am honest. I send my thoughts and condolences to the friends and family.

Read more: Rangers defender Senderos facing trial by television after Partick match

“The result on Saturday goes out of the window when you hear something like that, it’s very sad news. All the boys are devastated.”

The resentment which the Partick players felt at referee Stephen Finnie and his assistants failing to spot two separate fouls by Rangers centre half Philippe Senderos in the first half suddenly appeared inconsequential.

Senderos, the Swiss defender who was making his first appearance since being red carded in the game against Celtic at Parkhead last month, had elbowed Chris Erskine in the face and taken out Ade Azeez off the ball shortly after that. “He has blocked me,” said Azeez. “He’s got me in my face. He has just checked across me. Unfortunately, he got away with it.”

Senderos was later shown a yellow card for another infringement. But if the match officials had noticed the earlier infraction he would have been ordered off. That would have left Mark Warburton’s side in a difficult position and could potentially have altered the final outcome of the game.

Rangers were outplayed by their visitors, rooted to bottom spot in the top flight, in the opening stages and only remained on level terms as a result of their opponents’ failure to deliver a final ball. How would they have fared if they had been reduced to ten men?

The Championship winners got lucky. Clint Hill was ruled out through illness, but he is likely to reclaim his position in the backline alongside Danny Wilson when he recovers after another wildly erratic and unconvincing performance from Senderos.

Rangers took the lead against the run of play with a wonderful goal in the first half. A cute Barrie McKay back heel set up Niko Kranjcar who converted brilliantly. Andy Halliday added another before half-time after some good work by Martyn Waghorn.

A 2-0 win and three points were duly secured, but this was another far from convincing showing. Foderingham, however, rightly feels that the final outcome was, given the difficulties his side have experienced since moving up to the top flight, all that was important. The triumph meant they avoided the worst start to a season in 27 years and moved up to fifth spot in the league table.

“We needed a result against Thistle and we got one,” said Foderingham. “We’d much rather the performances, not be as good and collect three points at the end of the day.

“We felt we played well against Aberdeen the week before but we came away with nothing. The second half against Thistle was pretty slack, but the main thing was the three points and we move on again.

Read more: Rangers defender Senderos facing trial by television after Partick match

“Over the course of the season if the performances are there then the results will come. We haven’t quite put it together as yet but we aren’t worried. We got the win against Thistle and that was the most important thing.”

Foderingham, who kept only his second clean sheet in the Premiership this season against Thistle, was, despite another ragged display, adamant that nobody in the Rangers camp had given up hope of challenging Celtic for the title.

“People can write us off if they like, but it’s still very early in the sea-son and that’s certainly not the feeling in the dressing room,” he said. “In recent weeks they’ve shown they can drop points and teams will drop points from now until the end of the season.

“We need to try and put some wins together and try and build some momentum on the back of the win against Partick. We were always in control against Thistle, we just took our foot off the pedal a little bit and that can’t happen. We need to keep working hard all game.”

Warburton’s decision to move McKay to the right wing in front of James Tavernier in the wake of the right back’s costly mistake against Aberdeen six days earlier certainly worked. The defender had far less need to advance upfield and performed better at the back as a result.

Ryan Edwards, the Australian midfielder, was encouraged by how Thistle performed against Rangers at Ibrox and is confident they will move up the league table after the international break.

“The belief is there,” he said. “One hundred percent. If you come to our training ground, you’ll see it’s not a team at the bottom of the table. We don’t think that at all. The performances so far would suggest that we should be higher up the table.

“We’re disappointed that we don’t have another game straight after the Rangers match, but when we come back we have games against teams who are in and around us and we’ll need to pick up points.”