IT is a good job that Rangers supporters have those great expectations of overthrowing what remains of their board of directors to keep them warm in these closing weeks of winter.

Victory in the battle for the heart and soul of their club is now so close they can almost touch it. Victories on the park remain decidedly more elusive.

In the hours leading up to kick-off at Falkirk, a certain focus was placed on the actions of Felix Magath, the former Fulham manager, in proxying his 810,000 shares to the Rangers Supporters' Trust ahead of Friday's extraordinary general meeting at Ibrox.

The German's gesture gives the RST control of more than 5.5 per cent of shares through their own stake and proxies and has added to the sense of momentum being enjoyed by the campaign to remove Derek Llambias and Barry Leach and replace them with Dave King, Paul Murray and John Gilligan.

"As Felix is a true football man, he has a deep appreciation of the problems faced by the fans and the club in the past few years," said Chris Graham, spokesman for the RST.

"We sincerely thank him for his backing and hope that this is yet another signal to the current board that their time is coming to an end."

There are a number of individuals at Rangers whose times appear to be coming to an end. Many of them take to the pitch every other weekend.

Unfortunately, they cannot be jettisoned until their contracts expire in the summer.

This was a typically underwhelming display from Kenny McDowall's side.

They went a goal up at the midway point of the opening period through Darren McGregor and conceded almost immediately to Rory Loy. During the course of the second half, they showed little in an attacking sense and played second fiddle to their hosts.

It is impossible to fancy this motley crew to survive the end-of-season play-offs, but criticising them is becoming repetitive.

The fact of the matter is that they were fortunate to secure the draw that keeps them five points clear of Falkirk in third place in the SPFL Championship having played three games less.

Had the Bairns, still unbeaten in nine fixtures since the turn of the year, reduced that deficit to two points, things really would have become interesting. In fairness, they tried their best and looked dangerous from the off.

Loy put a ball across the face of goal that was crying out for someone to race in and convert from close-range and there was further wastefulness when John Baird was played clean through in the area by Mark Kerr only to put a weak cross-cum-shot into McGregor.

The former St Mirren centre-back was involved in mopping up the majority of Falkirk's early attacks and popped up at the other end on

20 minutes to give Rangers their exceedingly brief lead. His finish was clinical in the extreme, but the build-up owed more to good fortune than invention.

Nicky Law fired a hopeful free-kick into the area from the left that Kris Boyd managed to flick on. The ball struck Tom Taiwo and was scuffed clear by Peter Grant, but it landed directly in the path of McGregor and he buried a crisp, right-footed shot low past the goalkeeper, Jamie MacDonald.

It should have been a time for Rangers to bed in and close down the game. They conceded the equaliser a minute-and-a-half later.

Bilel Mohsni made his first appearance in over two-and-a-half months at the Westfield Stadium. Be sure that the essential elements of his game have not changed greatly. Needless to say, he was the defender to blame.

Craig Sibbald played the ball wide to Baird on the left and he delivered an inviting cross into the area. What is inexcusable, though, is the way Mohsni permitted Loy to get in front of him and direct the loveliest of headers past the exposed Lee Robinson and into the far corner of the net.

MacDonald denied Boyd with a one-handed save from a back post header a little later while it took the joint efforts of McGregor and Sebastien Faure to block a Sibbald shot when the Falkirk midfielder had been permitted to see some daylight inside the box.

Falkirk were the better side after the interval, but cast-iron opportunities were few and far between. Baird had an effort saved by Robinson with Loy seeing a goalbound snapshot blocked by Mohsni's body.

By the end of injury-time, the frustration of the away support was almost tangible. Not for the first time this season, they booed their team off when it was all over.

Given recent events, it was the singing of those same supporters that was under scrutiny in the initial stages of the game.

There was some stuff about Northern Ireland and The Troubles early on before an outbreak of "We Are Rangers, Super Rangers" just before the quarter-hour. According to who you listen to, Celtic were either branded "fenian b******s" or "cheating b******s" during the course of it. Who can be sure?

It remains hellishly depressing that we are even discussing it.