AMID the continuing remonstrations over badge rights, retail contracts and where replica shirts should or should not be purchased, the likelihood remains that Rangers' season is likely to hinge on a deal bearing the mark of Mike Ashley.

The arrangement that saw five players from his reserve squad at Newcastle United join Rangers on loan in January remains ludicrous in the extreme. Four of them are unfit with one, the elusive Shane Ferguson, only just about to show up at Murray Park for the first time this morning.

The arrival of that job lot, however, has contained one wholly unexpected positive. Haris Vuckic has now scored seven goals in 12 appearances. Six of those have come in the last seven games and yesterday's, which afforded some valuable breathing space following an early opener from Nicky Clark, cannot be underestimated in terms of importance.

The scoreline at the end of this match was considerably more impressive than the Rangers performance with the result absolutely vital in the wake of the midweek thrashing from Queen of the South that had brought the momentum gained on the field through victories over Hibernian, Cowdenbeath and Hearts to such an emphatically grinding halt.

Things are better under Stuart McCall than they were previously, but this Ibrox side still has its work cut out to get through the end of season play-offs. Their chances of scrambling their way back into the top flight are greatly enhanced, however, by having Vuckic in the line-up.

At this level of football, he looks a class apart. He is rangy, energetic and clearly enjoying himself, as shown in the way he milked the applause from those in the Main Stand following his goal.

The 22-year-old, evidently improving in terms of match fitness with every appearance, is one of the few players in the Rangers squad that can be termed capable of changing a match with his ability to find the net with such regularity simply adding to his worth.

Nicky Law is threatening to show what he can do now, too. His late brace took his season's tally to 12 and he certainly appears to be rediscovering his self-belief under McCall, his one-time manager at Motherwell.

It is important not to overstate matter, though. Any progress being made at Ibrox, on and off the field, is slow and open to debate.

McCall wanted the stadium "rocking" for the visit of Raith Rovers. He must have been deeply disappointed. Were it not for the usual suspects in the Broomloan Road Stand, the atmosphere would have been somewhat downtempo if not exactly funereal.

The number of empty seats in the stadium for this encounter also made it easy to believe that the air of positivity around the fanbase in the immediate wake of last month's Dave King-inspired takeover is slowly being replaced by a wait-and-see attitude.

Rebuilding the infrastructure of the club is a long-term thing, mind you. There was an immediate need for Rangers to shake what happened at Palmerston out of their systems and prove that they are now just unpredictable rather than wholly unreliable. They certainly got off to the ideal start when opening the scoring after just six minutes.

Law delivered a decent corner from the right and Clark was given all the time in the world to make his run, set himself and bullet home a header from the edge of the six-yard box. The finish was to be admired, but the defending from Rovers, looking very much like a team that knows it has nothing left to play for, was inexcusable.

Dean Shiels saw a shot deflected wide and Marius Zaliukas put a header over the bar as Rangers controlled the match in a largely underwhelming manner before Vuckic intervened to provide a little bit of magic a few minutes before the half-hour mark.

Robbie Crawford, given his first start of the campaign at right-back, played a simple pass out right to the Slovenian and he did what he almost always does. Vuckic cut inside past two men, got himself into a dangerous position at the edge of the penalty area and released a low left-footed shot that whizzed past the goalkeeper, Kevin Cuthbert, and buried itself in the far corner.

Rangers were worthy of their lead. It must be said, however, that Rovers offered almost nothing of the drive and energy that saw them record a deserved 2-1 victory at Ibrox in the William Hill Scottish Cup back in February.

That afternoon, Ryan Conroy scored the most wonderful of free-kicks.

He had the opportunity to repeat the dose on 35 minutes after Darren McGregor had brought down Lewis Vaughan just a little over 18 yards from goal.

As with the Fifers' entire display yesterday, though, the magic simply wasn't there. Conroy did get his effort on target, but it was straight at Cammy Bell and he parried the ball to safety with little fuss.

Conroy had another opportunity just before the hour to give Rovers a little hope. A ball into the area from Grant Anderson had caused confusion and the ball broke to the ex-Celtic player in a good position.

His reaction, holding his head in his hands after his sidefooted effort had sailed wide of Bell's right-hand post, was clear evidence that he should have done much better.

In truth, the game was dying a death before Law made it 3-0 in the 72nd minute. He saw a first-time shot from a cutback from the substitute, Tom Walsh, come back off the underside of the crossbar, take a bounce and be redirected by the head of Paul Watson back to his feet directly in front of goal.

He could hardly miss and sidefooted the ball past Cuthbert and into the net. His second involved a little more in the way of invention.

He picked the ball up midway inside the Raith half with two minutes to play, advanced to within shooting distance and released a clever, curling effort with his instep that beat Cuthbert to his left.