THERE is no question, after this, that Dean Shiels deserves consideration as a potential answer to some of Rangers' well-established difficulties.
It is equally evident that Bilel Mohsni is the cause of so many of them. The Tunisian defender endured another evening of almost inexplicable errors on the plastic pitch at Falkirk and almost sold the jerseys with his team 2-1 up and a minute remaining on the clock.
A toe-poke from Rory Loy struck him on the hand inside the area with the home side pushing for an equaliser. No doubt about it. Referee Alan Muir either failed to spot it or believed it was unintentional and allowed play to rage on before Ian Black ended the contest with a spectacular curling effort from more than 25 yards in the second minute of stoppage time.
Either way, this was another game to make you wonder why Mohsni seems bombproof when it comes to team selection. Shiels made you wonder why he is consistently left out.
With an own goal from Owain Tudur-Jones having cancelled out an early opener from Loy, it was Shiels, making his first start of the season in place of the injured Nicky Clark, who put Rangers in front at a key moment midway through the second period.
Shiels has the kind of inventive streak which is so often missing from the Ibrox side. How they could have done with something like that as they launched long ball after long ball towards goal at Alloa on Saturday.
With their manager's weekend criticisms over a dreadful lack of tempo in that 1-1 draw at the Indodrill Stadium no doubt ringing in the players' ears, Rangers took no more than 90 seconds of this affair to carve out a terrific chance.
Mohsni sent Shiels straight through with a quite outrageous pass from deep inside his own half. The Northern Irishman went down in the area under pressure from Liam Dick and David McCracken before he could pull the trigger, but referee Muir was not to be fooled by the puppy-dog eyes and waved play on.
Even so, that early statement of intent put Rangers in a position of strength from which they could dominate a side that consistently causes them problems. Unfortunately, Mohsni had other ideas. He is capable of outrageousness at both ends of the park and emerged as a key figure in what was a truly catastrophic goal to lose in the fifth minute of play.
The French-Tunisian, as is his wont, lost possession to Craig Sibbald just outside his own area and allowed the midfielder to set up Blair Alston for an angled shot. This is where Steve Simonsen took centre stage. Alston's low shot was perfectly straightforward to deal with. Instead, the Englishman palmed it into the path of Loy just a matter of yards out and he could hardly miss.
Rangers remain so resolutely unimpressive that you never quite know what is coming when they find their backs to the wall. As it was, their response was rapid and impressive.
Lee Wallace and Shiels linked up to release Steven Smith on the left and his low cross towards Kris Boyd in the area had danger written all over it.
Tudur-Jones had no option but to stick a leg out. Boyd would surely convert otherwise. But the Welshman simply could not turn the ball, travelling at a good clip, past the near post and suffered the agony of watching it bounce high into his own net.
Shiels appeared to be relishing his return to the fray and could well have put his side in front shortly afterwards. Moving on to a pass from Boyd, he saw his first shot saved by Jamie MacDonald and then headed back to his feet by Will Vaulks. Shiels showed good imagination in attempting to flip the ball towards Boyd at the back post, but McCracken read the situation well and cleared the danger.
Black then flashed a shot from distance just wide as Rangers briefly looked like taking control, but Mohsni, ever eager to keep the game competitive, lost the ball again after slipping at the most inopportune time and allowed Luke Leahy to put Joe Shaughnessy through on goal.
The young full-back, on loan from Aberdeen, complained bitterly for a penalty after believing he had been barged by Lee McCulloch. Muir paid no attention. Neither did his team-mate Tom Taiwo, who sent a curling effort from 20 yards just the wrong side of Simonsen's right-hand post.
Alston forced Simonsen into a save early in the second period after Mohsni had given the ball away once more, but the game was threatening to die a death until Shiels made it 2-1 on 65 minutes.
A clearance from MacDonald was headed back towards the Falkirk goal and a flick-on from Nicky Law gave Shiels a sniff of a chance. He outpaced McCracken to get the ball under control in the area and the goalkeeper just could not get enough on his shot to prevent it from nestling in the top corner.
With time running out, Mohsni escaped the referee's attentions after appearing to handle and Black secured victory in the most spectacular fashion when taking a pass from David Templeton and sending the most delightful effort swerving past the despairing dive of MacDonald and high into the net.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article