AFTER all the heartache and humiliation Rangers have suffered at the hands of Alloa Athletic in this turbulent season, a slender victory at the Indodrill Stadium was gratefully accepted.
The Ibrox club had failed to register a win in three previous meetings with the part-time team this season, twice in the SPFL Championship and once in the semi-finals of the Petrofac Training Cup.
The last time they squared up to Barry Smith's side, in the latter competition last month, they squandered a two-goal lead in the final 20 minutes to crash to an ignominious 3-2 defeat.
Hence Rangers travelled to Clackmannanshire for a match played on a plastic pitch in treacherous snowy and windy conditions with a sense of trepidation - and returned home deeply relieved men.
Their first away win in more than two months, courtesy of Nicky Law's 15th-minute goal, took them eight points clear of Hibernian and kept them 13 behind runaway league leaders Hearts ahead of the top two meeting at Ibrox on Friday night.
"We knew it was going to be a difficult day with the conditions and the pitch and the opposition so if you had said it was going to be 1-0 before kick-off I would've taken it in a minute," admitted Kenny McDowall. Rangers' caretaker manager changed his side extensively against Dumbarton last weekend after the 4-0 thrashing by Hibs at Easter Road the week before.
He was rewarded with a welcome victory and, unsurprisingly, did not tinker with his line-up yesterday.
Kyle Hutton retained his place in central midfield ahead of Ian Black, David Templeton was once again given the nod to start instead of Fraser Aird in right midfield and Jon Daly started up front instead of Nicky Clark.
Rangers, though, suffered a serious scare in the sixth minute when their hosts carved out an excellent scoring opportunity. Daryll Meggatt sent Liam Buchanan clean through on goal with a precise punt upfield.
The striker only had Steve Simonsen to beat and opted to lob the goalkeeper. His fine effort cleared Simonsen comfortably only to drift narrowly wide.
However, the Ibrox side, unlike on their previous visits to this venue, had by far the better of the opening exchanges and deserved to edge in front.
Templeton picked out Daly in the Alloa area and the centre-forward cut the ball back to his Law who fired beyond Craig McDowall from close range to give his side the lead.
It was the English midfielder's 10th goal of the campaign and put him ahead of Kris Boyd in the Rangers scoring charts.
Not a bad return for a player who is the subject of so much criticism from his club's own followers.
"Nicky takes his chances really well," McDowall said. "There was a good bit of play by Kenny Miller and Jon Daly in the build-up to the goal, but Nicky made a great run and produced a decent finish. It was different class."
The other Rangers players could not match Law's ruthlessness in the final third of the park despite the numerous chances they created in the opening 45 minutes.
Miller, a lively presence up front, struck a post and forced two decent saves from McDowall during a spell of sustained pressure from the visitors. Templeton, too, could have netted.
The artificial surface may have had something to do with Rangers' poor display in attack. "When the players were shooting they were struggling to get the ball airborne," McDowall said. "I'm not keen on the pitch at all."
Alloa forward Greig Spence, who had the netted winner in the Challenge Cup semi-final at the same venue last month, was introduced late on as Mark Docherty came off.
The substitute forced an excellent save from Simonsen with a free-kick seven minutes from the end. Buchanan snatched quickly at the rebound and shot well wide.
Hutton showed great comp-osure to hoof a Buchanan pass out of the Rangers six-yard box and over his own crossbar for a corner in the final minute of regulation time.
"We created good chances and failed to punish them by scoring," McDowall said. "The only thing the boys were guilty of today was not taking their chances. On another day we could have had two or three."
Alloa manager Smith was rightly satisfied with the endeavour of his impressive team, but he accepted they have to start being more clinical if they are to climb out of their current position - second bottom - and stave off the possibility of relegation to League One.
"I am frustrated because we didn't take any chances," he said. "It has been the same story for the last few weeks. We really need to start getting the draws and wins that our perform- ances merit."
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