LOOKS like it is back to the drawing board for Rangers.

They really did play well when winning their last Championship tie 4-0 at Raith Rovers and there was such exultation within Ibrox over the midweek display that knocked Inverness Caledonian Thistle out of the League Cup to extend the side's winning run to seven games in all competitions.

That feelgood factor disappeared completely, however, on Alloa's artificial surface over the course of a torrid 90 minutes. Rangers were pedestrian and predictable and only escaped with a point thanks to a fortunate goal scrambled home by substitute David Templeton with six minutes remaining.

The irony is that Jon Daly might well have won it for them. The word after the final whistle was that he should not have had an effort seconds from time-up disallowed for offside, but defeat would have been cruel on a home side that went out to make life uncomfortable for the League One champions and were well on course to pull off a shock when Jonathan Tiffoney gave them the lead 10 minutes from half-time.

Of course, they spent most of the second period camped in their own half, but Rangers had resorted to lumping the ball long by then. It was awful to watch and manager Ally McCoist knows it. The standard of play is not his only headache. Lewis Macleod twisted his foot and ankle on 13 minutes, making way for Templeton, and looks like spending time on the sidelines. Nicky Clark, replaced by Daly at the end of the first 45 minutes, looked like he damaged his shoulder in an aerial collision with Stephen Simmons.

"Alloa tried to kill the game at every opportunity and we have to do something about that," said McCoist. "Our tempo was nothing like high enough. If I was in Alloa's shoes, I would take my time with every free-kick and bye-kick.

"The surface is horrible, but it is horrible for both teams. I am not saying the surface is responsible for the result or the performance. I felt the whole thing was a little bit flat. For all that, this could still turn out to be an important point."

Kris Boyd entered affairs having failed to score on league business so far this season and does not look like his normal self right now. While hardly receiving great service, he passed up a handful of chances and his form is becoming a bit of a concern.

On 12 minutes, he fashioned a fine opportunity for himself thanks to clever link-up work with Clark, but put the ball over the crossbar with a clear sight of goal and put a header over the bar at the back post a little later.

Alloa were always in the game, though, and controlled the quarter hour leading up to the interval. Kevin Cawley saw a snapshot held by Steve Simonsen, who then came dangerously close to gifting a goal to the home side.

After more or less dropping the ball when trying to throw it out, his eventual clearance fell to Graeme Holmes inside the Rangers half. With the Englishman in no-man's land, Holmes launched an effort towards the unguarded net, but it sailed just over.

The opening goal was well created and expertly converted, though. Cawley sprayed the ball out to Mark Docherty on the left and he got the better of Fraser Aird to whip a terrific head-height cross at pace into the area. Tiffoney's jump was perfect and the ball crept inside the far post. Boyd spurned another chance early in the second half, heading over from close-range, but Rangers lacked invention and failed to create another proper chance until 20 minutes from time when Lee McCulloch saw a firm header from a Templeton corner cleared off the line by Cawley.

From the counter-attack, Greig Spence should perhaps have ended the game as a contest. Tiffoney picked him out with a magnificent crossfield pass from right-back and, after forcing his way past Ian Black in the area, he put his shot straight into Simonsen's midriff.

By the end, Rangers were lumping balls forward in the hope of a break. Remarkably, they got one with six minutes to go. McCulloch had a shot from inside the area saved and was denied by John Gibson again from the rebound, but the ball made its way to Templeton just yards out and he poked it home.

Daly had the ball in the net again with just five seconds of normal time left after moving on to a Black set-piece, but assistant referee Lorraine Clark had raised her flag for offside.

"The ball was in the air for a long time and there wasn't a flick-on from any of our players," said McCoist. "If he was offside at the taking of the free-kick, I would be disappointed in Jon."