THIS is where Stuart McCall earns his money.

If there had been any prospect of the one-time midfielder becoming the first Rangers manager for some years to enjoy a relatively easy time of it then it ended abruptly in Dumfries on Thursday night. Three successive victories had navigated Rangers back into pole position in the race to finish second in the SPFL Championship but a 3-0 skelping from Queen of the South was a swift reminder that nothing is ever straightforward at Ibrox these days. McCall's task now is to ensure that that result was just a blip rather than the wheels starting to come off the wagon again at the worst possible time.

Rangers had designs on winning the title this year only to be soundly beaten to it by Hearts. Promotion, then, will need to be attained via the play-offs, although it is a path strewn with obstacles. Rangers will first need to pick a way through their final five league matches and hope to finish the season in second place. Doing so will see them play a tie fewer in the play-offs - and maybe spare them a return to Palmerston where they have now been soundly beaten twice - although a two-legged Championship final against possibly Hibernian and then another home-and-away affair against probably Motherwell or Ross County will certainly test their mettle. It should be make for an enthralling end to the season for the neutrals, although perhaps not quite as enjoyable for those in the midst of it.

Despite Thursday's result, McCall was not overly despondent with his team's performance. Losing 3-0, just four days after handing Hearts their first away defeat of the season, was clearly not what he would have wanted, but he remains confident it can be written off as an off-night. How his team performs against Raith Rovers at Ibrox tomorrow should give him more of an indication whether that was the case or not.

"We have got to make sure it is only a blip by being really positive on Sunday," he added. "That is basically how I can wrap it up. But it wasn't a disaster even though the score shouts out 3-0. We know we didn't play as well as we can. A lot of individuals didn't play as well as they have been doing. But we've got to take it on the chin and get on with it. I don't want doom and gloom. The first two games here weren't what we wanted so we bounced back from those setbacks. We then went on a decent run and now we've had another setback. It's about we react to it."

Rangers' temperament will be thoroughly tested over the coming weeks. They will again be without their captain Lee McCulloch tomorrow following his rash red card against Hearts, and McCall knows he cannot afford to lose any more players to suspension. The sight of Bilel Mohsni arguing with Queen of the South supporters, then punching the synthetic pitch in frustration, would, therefore, have alarmed the Rangers manager somewhat.

"I've had to have a word with him over his concentration levels," revealed McCall. "The other night he did some absolutely outstanding things in the game and then he did some slack things and sloppy things. I didn't know what he was booked for and Kenny [Miller] had said to me it was a reaction to their fans. He was probably frustrated and angry at the result. As long as he was only punching the ground and nobody else!

"But I'll have another look at it as we can't afford to have silly bookings at this point in the season. [Ian] Blackie got one the other day and there are a couple of other lads a game away from being suspended. If it's for tackles you can maybe understand it but we can't afford cheap bookings for running to the crowd, taking your shirt off, back chat with referees, kicking the ball away - I don't like things like that. It's a lack of discipline.

"We can't afford to have any players getting caught up in stuff. They have to be on their game. There will be a lot of big games, big crowds, tension and drama until the last kick of the season. So, cool heads is the way to go, although I still like fire in the belly. I don't want people to surrender meekly and mildly. There's nothing wrong with a bit of passion as long as it's channelled in the right way."

That is something McCall can always rely on from Miller. The striker, one of a number of players whose contract expires in the summer, is determined to help the club achieved promotion, believing the alternative is too grim to almost contemplate.

"It would be really disappointing if we never got up this season," said the striker. "When you are at this club there is a certain expectation and a standard that is set way before I came here 15 years ago. It's about winning games or trophies and whether it was this league or the two leagues previously, we set out to win them - it's as simple as that. Obviously, this season we have fallen short but we can still finish the season on a real high on May 31 by getting promoted back to the Premiership. That is where we wanted to be when we started out on this journey three years ago."

- Tickets for tomorrow's game are available from www.rangers.co.uk, 0871 702 1972 and the Rangers Ticket Centre until kick-off. Prices from £17 adults, £12 concessions and £5 kids