THE scent of blood from that wounded, vulnerable beast suffering blow after blow after blow is becoming heady and overpowering.

This is a dogfight, all right. And it is only going to get messier.

Rangers, now embroiled in a battle just to cling onto a play-off position in a league they should have won comfortably on the basis of their wage bill alone, have the look of a team on their last legs. Their short-term manager, Stuart McCall, has failed to create fresh impetus after recording two draws at home to teams situated in the bottom two.

Tuesday's costly yet predictable draw with Alloa Athletic took their recent form to one win in nine in all competitions. Rangers are broken and dysfunctional, they admit themselves that they cannot be sure of finishing in the top four and you had better believe that the teams drawing ever closer to them can sense an historic opportunity on the horizon.

Hearts are champions and Hibernian, having won seven on the trot, now look like coming second. Rangers are reduced to looking over their shoulders from third place and trying to figure out a way to stay alive over the last nine games of this increasingly compelling campaign.

Queen of the South, unlucky not to take more than a point from Ibrox nine days ago, can reduce the gap between themselves and McCall's men to just two points by beating Cowdenbeath at home on Saturday. Falkirk, lying fifth and still six points behind Rangers, have a tougher task with Hearts coming to town.

They are bullish, though. Their manager, Peter Houston, has led them on a recent run that has brought just one defeat in 17 matches and a place in the semi-finals of the William Hill Scottish Cup.

Everything is up for grabs. Nothing can be taken for granted - other than, perhaps, McCall going three games without a win at Easter Road on Sunday - and Houston makes absolutely no secret of the fact he has Rangers in his crosshairs.

"It is spot-on to say that this is going to be a dogfight," he stated. "We will be battling like hell, for want of a better word, to win every single game.

"It would be foolish of us not to look above us and think that Rangers are still gettable.

"We know what we have got to do. We are still the team in fifth, but we still have all the teams in front of us to play and that is where we will have to be at our best and hold our nerve.

"There are going to be plenty of twists and turns. Anything can happen. It is exciting and I think that is the way most people would want it.

"It is refreshing that the Championship has developed into such a dogfight.

"We are looking ahead and will try to catch Rangers. That is the aim.

"We are going into these games with loads of confidence and that comes from not losing."

They are the polar opposite of Rangers, a club where the very concept of feeling confident has become lost in the maelstrom of another chaotic season on and off the field.

Kris Boyd, who returned as a reborn character following a great season in the Premiership with Kilmarnock and is now sinking without trace, was the first to concede in the wake of a hard-earned 1-1 draw at Falkirk last month that Rangers were not certain to reach the play-offs.

Kenny McDowall, on his way out as caretaker boss, later confirmed it. Such pronouncements are suggestive of a chronic lack of self-belief and must give great encouragement to the likes of Falkirk and Queen of the South as they attempt to achieve the impossible and knock them into fifth.

"It should be an incentive," said Houston. "What Kris has recognised is that football does not come easily when you are up against clubs who are organised and have a real bunch of grafters in there.

"We play host to Hearts on Saturday. If both teams play to 100 per cent of their ability, Hearts will win because they have more quality. If Hearts play to 90 per cent and we play to our best, we will win and that is exactly what happened when we beat them at Tynecastle this season.

"What has happened with Rangers is that they have not always been able to play to their maximum, for one reason or another, while the teams round about them have always lifted their games.

"I have told my team all season to have no fear, embrace the big games and do their best. We have beaten Hearts and Hibs in the capital. We haven't beaten Rangers yet, but this league is more difficult than you think it is going to be. Every game is a battle.

"Queen of the South and ourselves deserve credit for being up there competing with Rangers. Our budgets are a drop in the ocean compared to theirs."