Rangers........2

Grasshopper..1

RANGERS took their first points in the Champions League last night with victory over Grasshopper of Zurich and their veteran striker, Ally McCoist, helped himself to his first goals in the tournament.

It has long been a barb

directed at McCoist by his

detractors that he had not scored in the Champions League. Yesterday, as his career moves towards its end, he twice answered those critics, once, after 66 minutes from the penalty spot and again, seven minutes later with a shot which he swept beyond the Swiss keeper, Pascal Zuberbuhler.

The goals were eventually enough to give the Scottish champions victory, and enough to give them also a #500,000 bonus for the three points they placed on the board. But the 34,192 crowd were left wondering at what might have been.

This was a Rangers performance which saw off the Swiss. A performance which ended the ``holidaymakers'' jibes which had hung round them since the first group match in Zurich.

And the Scottish champions were able to gain the victory without three of their major players. Paul Gascoigne and Brian Laudrup were missing, but for different reasons.

Gascoigne was out through

suspension and everyone knew that before the game.

But Laudrup and his fellow Scandinavian, the Swedish

defender Joachim Bjorklund, were ruled out with hamstring injuries before the match.

On any other occasion these absences might have been

crucial - but on a night when the Rangers players looked for revenge and looked, too, to

reward their support, these

players were not missed.

It was in the second half

before the goals that the Ibrox support demanded arrived. When they did, they were

welcomed rapturously because McCoist was the man who scored them.

The first came after 66

minutes when Peter van Vossen's cross was handled by Pascal Thuler in the penalty box.

A penalty was given and McCoist stepped forward. The misses which had gone before - both Laudrup and Gascoigne have failed to score from the spot this season - did not deter him.

He struck the ball confidently past the keeper for his first Champions League goal and pushed Rangers in front for the first time in this season's competition.

Seven minutes later it was McCoist once more. This time he did not need a penalty. This time the pass, perfectly placed, from Jorg Albertz sent him clear and again he showed the finishing skills which have carried him through so many seasons as he struck the ball beyond the keeper and into the net. The Rangers fans began to celebrate seriously for the first time since the preliminary round victory over the Russians, Alania Vladikavkaz. However, nothing ever seems to be simple at Ibrox.

Before the end they still had to survive some anxious moments. Just after McCoist's second goal the Hungarian referee awarded a penalty against Gordan Petric for a foul on Kubilay Turkyilmaz. It was a soft award, but it was given and Mats Gren took the kick and Goram, the penalty hero last week at Parkhead, gave the fans an action replay, pushing the ball away to safety.

He followed that with an even better save from a Turkyilmaz free-kick.

Eventually, he was beaten when the Swiss side's substitute, Jan Berger, scored from close range with a shot as the Ibrox defenders looked in vain to the referee, protesting that there had been an infringement.

That was Grasshoppers' final throw. They had no more left, and Rangers ended the game on the attack with Albertz bringing out a save from the keeper.

The campaign has been a

disaster for the Scottish champions - but, last night, they did what they set out to do. They recovered some of the pride that had been lost. They won, for the club, a #500,000 bonus for the victory. And they demonstrated that while they may have flopped in the earlier games, they are still able to hold their own against the likes of Grasshopper.

The players always believed that they could match the Swiss champions, and also the Frenchmen of Auxerre. But they realised that they had to prove that on the field. Last night they did so. In two weeks' time the opportunity is there for them to do the same against Auxerre.

At least, now, they have shown the rest of Europe that they are not complete flops.

Given that they were without three of their main players, the result was even more impressive. And, once more, Scott Wilson who did so well against Ajax, came in to prove that there is a youth policy which is still alive and well at Ibrox.

Now, Rangers move on to the Coca-Cola Cup final, hoping to add to their domestic haul of trophies and boosted by the knowledge that, at last, they have saved themselves further embarrassment in the Champions League.

Auxerre will, no doubt, take heed the warning which came last night.

RANGERS - Goram, Cleland, Gough, Petric, Wilson, Robertson, Moore, Miller, Albertz, McCoist, van Vossen. Substitutes - Snelders, Andersen, McInnes, Steven, Shields.

GRASSHOPPER - Zuberbuhler, Thuler, Gren, Esposito, Comisetti, Lombardo, Turkyilmaz, Vogel, Magnin, Haas, Smiljanic. Substitutes - Foletti, Geiger, Nemtsoutis, Subiat, Berger.

Referee - L Vagner (Hungary).