THE punters still going through the motions of turning up clap along robotically to the wholly-inappropriate opening chords of Simply The Best before going back to sitting on their hands.

Getting angry about these players in blue jerseys seems such a pointless exercise nowadays. We all know the team is pedestrian, predictable and undeserving of their inflated wages and that the SPFL Championship title has pretty much disappeared over the horizon.

Nicky Clark, recalled to the starting line-up for the first time in 12 matches, elicited a nice little ripple of applause when his name and image appeared on the giant screens just before kick-off. There was no detectable response at all, neither a cheer nor a jeer, for any of the other 18 members of the first-team squad.

There was nothing chanted about the manager, Ally McCoist, positive or negative, other than a lone voice imploring him to sing The Sash early in the second half.

What's the point? He doesn't want to be there on the touchline. If the club could cobble together the £750,000 it would take to pay him off without having to call in the receivers, he'd be joining the majority of Rangers supporters in spending his Saturdays doing something more enjoyable.

The Easdale brothers did come in for a smidgeon of abuse from a small group of people in the front of the Broomloan Road Stand. Around 50 of them gave us a few renditions of Sack The Board and Get Out Of Our Club, but it has about as much impact as throwing a Malteser into the North Atlantic.

There is no appetite for meaningful widespread protest on Edmiston Drive. Ibrox, itself, as has been well documented in recent times, is even becoming rather shabby around the edges. Everything about this sad, despondent place is tired and stale. It should be no surprise, then, that this contest between two teams, one almost as skint as the other, failed to lift the mood on an unpleasantly cold afternoon.

An early goal from Fraser Aird and an own goal late on from Simon Mensing maintained Rangers' position as favourites for a place in the end-of-season play-offs, but they hardly dominated a team that is bottom of the table. Well, they don't dominate anyone, do they?

In truth, Rangers should have been behind after just three minutes. Danny Mullen moved on to a pass from Jordan White inside the area and, although his left-footed shot did force a good low save from Steve Simonsen, he ought to have scored.

Aird brightened the gloom in the 10th minute, moving on to a Stevie Smith corner that had taken a fortuitous glance off Darren McGregor's head and releasing a terrific right-footed shot that flew into the far corner at an impressive rate of knots.

For a while, it looked as though it might inspire Rangers to something approaching an acceptable display, but, after efforts from Ian Black and Aird had just failed to hit the target, they went back into their shells.

Simonsen almost gifted an equaliser just after the half-hour, spilling a Keaghan Jacobs shot from distance that he only just managed to gather at the second attempt as White closed in. White then missed a fine opportunity himself before the break, putting a header from a matter of yards out way too close to Simonsen.

White sent a shot wide a matter of minutes after the interval as the visitors pushed for an equaliser, but their ambition was almost their undoing as Rangers came close with a couple of decent chances themselves. Lee Wallace blazed over just after the hour mark and Nicky Law, hitherto anonymous, came close to making the it on to scoresheet after 69 minutes when sliding a low shot the wrong side of the post.

Kris Boyd and David Templeton came on for Kenny Miller and Smith with 17 minutes to play with Myles Hippolyte making an appearance for Livingston in place of Gary Glen, but it would take a comical passage of play to finally make the points safe for McCoist and his men.

Aird fired in a cross from the right with visiting goalkeeper Darren Jamieson, having taken up rather a strange position. Mind you, there was little he could have done to prevent a header from Mensing bouncing into his own net.

It could have become interesting with four minutes left after Simonsen palmed a Declan Gallagher effort into Mensing's path just yards from goal, but a miserable afternoon for the Livingston centre-back was made complete when his header hit the near post before going wide.

The cheers at the end were short and muted. Rangers announced over the PA system that there had been 28,053 people in the stadium for this bleak affair, so that, at least, gave us all something to laugh about on the way home.