HIBERNIAN0

RANGERS 2

A difficult week ended placidly for Rangers. This

Scottish Cup third-round tie, as Alex McLeish noted on Saturday evening, attracted more than a few doom-mongers to the capital who had believed there might be a chance of an upset. Hibs, though, were rarely accomplished enough to do damage.

As a spectacle, this match was an alarming sight. Imagine, 25 years ago, if you'd been shoved into a time-machine and been told to travel forward in time to watch Hibs and Rangers in the Scottish Cup before a pitiful crowd of 11,392 as was mustered here.

In the old days at least 40,000 would have taken in this match. It was a further, miserable reminder of the way the Old Firm have squeezed the life - and thus the expectation - out of the Scottish game.

The Hibs seats at Easter Road were sparsely populated, as if their paying punters have had enough of seeing their proud team being mugged in front of the visiting Glasgow hordes. In the first half, as the game meandered on, one's mind kept drifting back to this depressing thought: Old Joe Baker, recently departed, would not have approved.

The match was characterised by niggly challenges and some surreptitious swipes which, con-sciously or not, made the referee Mike McCurry, a little trigger-happy with his yellow card, perhaps it was just as well he dropped his red one in the centre circle midway through the first half. Rangers even with-drew Nuno Capucho, who had been booked early for a flailing arm against Mathias Kouo-Doumbe, for fear that ''the Portuguese star'' might be sent off.

Everybody knows Bobby Williamson is working with straw and the promise of jam tomorrow and he is a manager deserving of some sympathy.

In point of fact Williamson's young Hibs players have a nice gusto and technique about them, but like all young players, and to their manager's eternal chagrin, they invariably make the wrong choice with the final pass. As a consequence, almost everything Hibs attempted

on Saturday simply petered out.

Hibs were further damaged by the loss of Grant Brebner, a busy, enterprising midfielder, who was carried off after 12 minutes with two excruciating injuries. As the unfortunate Brebner fell between Mikel Arteta and Shota Arveladze he not only broke his upper arm but also dislocated a shoulder in an agonising accident. Without Brebner, beyond dispute, Hibs were lacking a leader.

Arveladze had headed Rangers ahead after 34 minutes after a sprightly gallop down the wing and cross from Peter Lovenkrands which Hamed Namouchi met and dunted into the Georgian's path. Namouchi, by the way, is a young Tunisian who last summer landed a two-year contract at Ibrox almost unnoticed by everyone.

Lovenkrands' second for Rangers after 49 minutes may have found Daniel Andersson, the Hibs goalkeeper, badly

at fault, though it was still a crisp finish. Tearing through the old inside-left channel, Lovenkrands' skill was eye-catching - not to say remarkable coming from him - which resulted in the ball being deftly pinged behind Andersson.

''We knew we needed a good result,'' said Lovenkrands. ''You are always under pressure at Rangers but you just have to get used to it. We haven't been playing well and we know it, which is why today was very important.''