STEVEN Gerrard may have taken to answering questions on behalf of his players this week, but Rangers failed to answer the ones that really mattered when they crossed the white line at Ibrox last night.

They looked to have hit back from the disappointment of Sunday’s exit from the Betfred Cup emphatically early on, taking the lead through the returning Alfredo Morelos, but Kilmarnock levelled through Greg Stewart – fully vindicating his club’s decision to appeal his offer of a two-match ban – and an eerily familiar pattern took hold of the game.

The boos at the end from the irate home support told of their frustration as Rangers yet again dominated possession and territory without turning it into victory, with those drifting out of the stands left with far more questions than answers over their side’s credentials to mount a challenge for the Premiership title. Five wins from their first 10 league matches would suggest that prospect is diminishing.

For his part, Gerrard’s retort to Sunday’s semi-final defeat was to make four changes to his starting line-up. Wes Foderingham took the place of the injured Allan McGregor in goals, while Alfredo Morelos came in for Umar Sadiq, who dropped out of the squad altogether. Scott Arfield came in for Ryan Jack to add a little more goal threat to the midfield, while Andy Halliday replaced the injured Ovie Ejaria.

Rangers started on the front foot, and they were ahead after only eight minutes. James Tavernier did brilliantly to win the ball from Stewart and feed Daniel Candeias, who was dumped on his backside by Greg Taylor. Referee Nick Walsh waved play on and Ryan Kent picked up the fight, carrying the ball to the edge of the area before playing in Morelos, whose shot found the net via the foot of Kirk Broadfoot.

For a lot of teams, falling behind so early at Ibrox would be the signal for the white flag to be raised, but this Kilmarnock side are made of sterner stuff. And besides, they are just so used to it. For the sixth match in a row, they hit back after going a goal down, and what a way to do it.

Aaron Tshibola found Stewart advancing into the area on the right, and after cutting back through a weak Rangers challenge, the forward wrapped his left foot around the ball and curled a glorious effort into the opposite top corner.

Connor Goldson should have had Rangers back ahead moments later, but he directed his header from James Tavernier’s corner into the ruck of bodies in the centre of the goal and the ball was scrambled back to Jamie MacDonald.

It was breakneck stuff, and Killie also threatened twice in quick succession as a corner gave Stuart Findlay a chance that was blocked, before Stephen O’Donnell sent a thumping effort from 30 yards screaming just over the bar.

The home side had rather lost their way, but they almost got back on track just before the interval as Tavernier’s bending effort clipped the top of the bar.

Gerrard made a change at the break as Jack came on for the out of sorts Jon Flanagan, and they again started brightly, but the Rangers manager had to turn to his bench again just 10 minutes into the half to try and jump-start his team once more, with Glenn Middleton replacing the ineffective Lassana Coulibaly.

Moments later, they missed a gilt-edged opportunity as first Morelos and then Arfield fluffed their lines in the box, the latter putting an effort with the outside of his boot wide from all of six yards.

It wasn’t that Rangers were playing particularly badly, but the twin Kilmarnock destroyers of Alan Power and Gary Dicker in the centre of the park were breaking up their fluency effectively by means fair and foul while every man in a red shirt was putting in a mighty old shift for the cause.

That was typified by veteran winger Chris Burke making a lung-bursting charge back into his own area to snuff out an opening for Middleton, although MacDonald had to look smart to beat away a Morelos header from the resultant corner.

The pressure abated somewhat, leading Gerrard to take his last throw of the dice with fully 20 minutes remaining, throwing on Kyle Lafferty to partner Morelos up top. The problem that Rangers had without either of their top two choices to lead the attack on Sunday though were the same ones they had with both of them last night, in that they couldn’t get enough ball of either quality or quantity in their direction. Even when they did, the outstanding Kilmarnock central defensive pairing of Findlay and Broadfoot were marshalling things superbly.

Lafferty almost created something out of nothing with an acrobatic overhead kick, and referee Walsh still had time to incense the home support further by booking Morelos for dissent after being tripped by Broadfoot on the edge of the area without receiving a free-kick.

Stewart almost nicked it at the death as he went on a mazy run all the way in on Foderingham only to poke his effort straight at the Rangers keeper.

In the end though, all that mattered was that when it came to breaking down this Kilmarnock rearguard, Rangers – once again - simply ran out of answers.