Rangers 3 East Stirlingshire 1: Relief all round as Rangers settle the score

Richard Wilson

Sports writer

Monday 4 March 2013

supporters of Rangers wanted to make a statement about their club's history.

Lee McCulloch celebrates as he gives Rangers the lead against East Stirlingshire. Picture: Alan Harvey/SNS

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Richard Wilson

Despite having been found guilty of breaching registration rules by the Scottish Premier League's independent commission last week, the sanction was not the stripping of championships that the club's fans had so feared. They sang about 54 titles and acted as though released from anxiety, but that state of relief demanded that they avoid giving full attention to the team's display.

Not for the first time this season, Rangers performed sluggishly in the first half. Often, the moments of sharp incisive football belonged to East Stirlingshire, although they petered out in the final third. The past was prominent for Rangers fans, because the commission's verdict felt like an opportunity to finally draw a line on the traumas of financial collapse and allegations of cheating. The future is not yet promising enough to hold the attention, though. It was clear from the demeanour of Ally McCoist, the Ibrox manager, that he shares the same assessment of his side. At one stage, he was so angry with a listless passage of play that he spun round in fury, stomped across his technical area and had to stand, staring at the ground for a few moments while his composure returned. This team, with a wage bill higher than all but Celtic in Scottish football, is far removed from what McCoist wants it to be.The most assured player in possession was East Stirlingshire's Andy Stirling. A small, thin figure whose strip seemed to hang off him, the midfielder was comfortable carrying the ball, receiving passes in hectic areas of the pitch, and moving the ball on at a decent tempo. It was his one-two and burst into the penalty area that created the chance from which he scored the opening goal, too, with a calm shot beyond Neil Alexander."We always seem to make it hard for ourselves," said Kyle Hutton, the home side's midfielder. "We create chances but don't take them and never seem to get that early goal. As the game goes on, we get more and more nervous. We knew we had to come out and raise the tempo because we had been sloppy first half – the gaffer made it clear that we had to raise it. He and Kenny McDowall had a real go. I'd probably say that the first half was the poorest 45 minutes of the season from us at Ibrox."In the end, Rangers found the means to win, but they were one goal down at the interval, and looking hapless. Some chances had been spurned, most notably by Andy Little, but Rangers failed to dominate the midfield and the partnership up front of Lee McCulloch and Little was not dynamic enough. The defenders, either through habit or anxiousness, sent too many high balls to McCulloch, and McCoist sought to halt this at half-time by moving David Templeton into the centre and Little left. Within six minutes, Little had equalised, bundling the ball home from close range. Then McCulloch and Little both scored within two minutes of the other to secure victory. By then, East Stirlingshire had begun to look demoralised, even though they had troubled a Rangers side that does not display the fluency and belief of an accomplished team. McCoist will seek to strengthen the centre of his defence, his midfield and his attack, and the balance to be struck is ensuring that the young players with decent potential are allowed to develop.Otherwise, this was an occasion for Rangers fans to be relieved. Sandy Jardine addressed them before kick-off, on his first visit to Ibrox since being diagnosed with throat and liver cancer. While the verdict of Lord Nimmo Smith's commission ought to have been chastening, at least for the former directors of Rangers Football Club plc, the mood around the club was still one of relief."It was a massive lift for the club and the fans," said Hutton. "That put some added pressure on us to give them something to enjoy on the pitch. I'd have been devastated if we'd been stripped of titles and all that history had been just taken away from us. Now, everyone can just concentrate on getting the victories we need."

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Rangers 3 East Stirlingshire 1: Relief all round as Rangers settle the score

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