IF EVER a goal summed up a club, it is the one which sent Rangers on their merry way out of the William Hill Scottish Cup.

Shambles barely seems a strong enough term. Some kind of fresh neologism is needed to truly sum up the chaos, disorder and unhappiness on and off the field at Ibrox Stadium during this most humiliating of periods.

Much of the publicity surrounding the weekend's fifth round ties focused on the fact that referees would be using vanishing spray for the first time in Scottish football. Rangers did far better than that, though. In addition to the dinky little aerosol canister in Bobby Madden's pocket, they provided vanishing directors, vanishing fans, vanishing patience in the ever-underwhelming Ian Black and vanishing hope of winning any kind of silverware this season.

Even these loan players they brought in from Newcastle United amid an atmosphere of derision and suspicion in midweek are proving conspicuous by their absence. At the time of writing, four of them are unfit. Remie Streete and Haris Vuckic were the only ones to make the starting line-up for the visit of Raith Rovers with the former, having looked perfectly capable in central defence, limping off two minutes before the interval with what appeared to be a groin complaint.

Vuckic did have a central role to play in the afternoon's drama, mind you. He ducked out of the way when Ryan Conroy, once on the books of Celtic, bent a fantastic free-kick through the wall and into the home goalkeeper Steve Simonsen's left-hand corner to open the scoring on 54 minutes.

However, the Slovenian internationalist, fielded as part of a three-man supporting cast to the lone striker, Jon Daly, showed no lack of ability and gave his new side hope a little later by levelling the scores with a quite excellent finish.

It mattered little, mind you. Vuckic looked shellshocked as he trailed off the park at the end to the sound of jeers and fury from an 11,422 crowd generating a hell of a lot of noise after it had all gone wrong.

Who could blame them? Events just 15 minutes from time proved impossible to stomach for a long-suffering fanbase now accustomed to mediocrity and failure.

Jason Thomson was permitted to surge up the right and deliver a low cross into the the six-yard box. It should not have caused any great problems, but Simonsen found himself being challenged by the substitute, Mark Stewart, and failed to hold onto the ball.

It somehow ended up stuck between Richard Foster's bottom and the turf on the goal-line and the Rangers full-back certainly went on to make the most almighty arse of things. He freed it from underneath his posterior and promptly rolled it into the path of Christian Nade, who proved far more alert than Darren McGregor in converting an unmissable opportunity.

The outstanding Grant Anderson fired straight at Simonsen when presented with a great chance to make it 3-1. By that stage, the only potshots in return were being fired from the home supporters at their own players.

For Black, in particular, it appears his goose is finally cooked.

Following a typically poor display in the midfield of a side getting worse rather than better, he was replaced by Andy Murdoch on 74 minutes. The moment the substitutes board was raised by fourth official Andrew Dallas, the cheers rang out from all four sides of the ground. When he dallied in making his way to the dug-out, the vitriol rained down.

Of course, none of the board members were present to witness this latest in a spectacular collection of low points on their watch. The chief executive, Derek Llambias, and Sandy Easdale, chairman of the football board, had been advised to stay away for their own safety.

David Somers, Barry Leach and James Easdale clearly thought better of it, too.

Undeterred, several hundred supporters gathered outside the stadium before kick-off to demand their removal and those who bothered passing through the turnstiles kept up the pressure. A large banner unveiled in the Broomloan Stand on the quarter hour mark - with a training shoe descending upon two rats holding placards bearing the words 'McGill's Buses' and 'Sports Direct' - made rather a strong point. For the avoidance of any doubt, another that read 'Stamp Out The Vermin' was unfurled beneath it.

If only their team could hit the mark with such conviction. Jon Daly passed up an excellent chance amid a highly-competitive start when putting a close-range header from a Foster cross just that little bit too close to goalkeeper David McGurn.

It took a while for Rovers to gain control of the game, but they sent out a warning signal just before the half-hour. Paul Watson got his head to a Ryan Conroy corner and saw the ball sail past Black on the line, cannon off the inside of the post and land in the welcoming embrace of Simonsen on the goal-line.

The Rangers goalkeeper would have required a miracle to stop Conroy's dead-ball effort after Kyle Hutton had fouled Ross Callachan on the edge of the area after going to ground too early, though. It was a wonderfully-executed effort always destined to find the corner of the net.

Hutton did make up for his misjudgement when setting up Vuckic for the equaliser. He surged from inside his own half before rolling a lovely pass into the path of the Slovenian, whose low, left-footed finish into the far corner was clinical in the extreme.

It was pretty much the only thing to admire in Rangers. The goal that killed them off was as ugly as it gets, but Boyd, thrown on for Daly with 25 minutes to go, should have secured an undeserved replay in the final minute when being presented with a free header inside the area from a Murdoch cross.

He put it wide and rapped his boot off the upright in frustration.

Boyd's demise is one of many intriguing sub-plots at Ibrox. He is a shadow of his old self. His club is unrecognisable.

It says much about their predicament that their most meaningful match-up in years will take place between two rival sets of businessmen in a hotel in London next month. They are going absolutely nowhere on the park. Indeed, that side of things barely seems to matter any more.