RANGERS are likely to face a further SPFL investigation into sectarian singing by a section of the travelling support during last night's 2-1 victory over Raith Rovers at Starks Park.
Earlier this week the governing body chose not to take any action against the Ibrox club despite incidents of illicit chanting during the recent League Cup semi-final tie against Celtic at Hampden but it is thought mention of "sustained" sectarian chanting at last night's game will feature in the report submitted by Tom Purdie, the SPFL's match delegate.
On the field, Rangers avoided a fourth successive defeat after goals from Andy Murdoch and Kris Boyd paved the way for a first win in over a month. A late counter from Ryan Conroy gave Raith a lifeline but Rangers, dominant throughout, held out to move back into second place in the SPFL Championship.
Gordon Durie, the Rangers assistant manager, felt the performance and result were the ideal way to answer any recent criticism of the team. "A lot of people have been questioning their spirit but last week, and again tonight, they showed they're going to go out there and give it a shot," he said.
"Listen, everyone is due criticism sometimes. We just take it game by game. I think last week we got a good performance without the result - and we got both tonight. We made it hard for ourselves with losing the goal but the main thing is we got the three points."
Murdoch's goal was his first in senior football on only his fourth senior appearance. "I had Andy in the under-20s and he scored a few like that," added Durie. "He showed that he's in the team on merit. He scored a fantastic goal - and he's done that a few times for me in the 20s - but his whole performance was fantastic, his work rate and his energy in particular. He's a confident lad, he was captain of the 20s and he knows he's here because he's good enough."
The defeat was Raith's first in eight matches, much to manager Grant Murray's frustration. "You are always disappointed to lose a game of football and when you go behind against a team like Rangers it's very difficult," he said. "They can dominate games and that's what we found. Ryan Conroy's goal gave us something to chase in the last 20 minutes but I don't think we did enough to hurt Rangers."
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