Rangers still have to work for title

Dean Shiels and Jon Daly congratulate Nicky Law on his opener against Ayr United. Picture: SNS

Ayr United 0-2 Rangers

Scorers: Rangers - Law (46) Daly (59)

Ally McCoist’s side extended their unbeaten run to 30 matches with a 2-0 victory over Ayr United at Somerset Park on Saturday.

It was the Ibrox men’s 23rd league win from 24 matches this term and maintains their 23-point lead over nearest challengers Dunfermline.

Rangers can now clinch promotion to the Championship with five more wins, provided the Pars do not slip up before their decisive 15 March meeting in Glasgow and hand Gers the title sooner.

But Daly, whose side booked a William Hill Scottish Cup quarter-final slot against Albion Rovers by beating Jim Jefferies’ team 4-0 last week, claims the Light Blues are not getting ahead of themselves just yet.

He said: “We need to keep going. There’s been a lot said about us being contenders for the Scottish Cup but obviously we’d like to keep winning games in the league and that’s our bread and butter.

“We need to keep concentrating on that. We are not looking too far ahead, only the next game. We have a big game at home to Stenhousemuir next week and we’ll be looking to pick up three points there.

“If both us and Dunfermline keep winning, the title is only five games off, but if we look too far ahead you will slip up. Hopefully if we keep our concentration, the rest will look after itself.”

Daly nodded home Rangers’ second against the Honest Men to wrap up a game that could have swung the opposite way.

Rangers had Cammy Bell to thank after the former Kilmarnock keeper pulled off three impressive saves to deny former Gers striker Kevin Kyle and midfielders Craig Malcolm and Michael Donald during a shaky first 45 minutes.

But it took just 30 seconds of the second period for Rangers to go up a gear as Nicky Law bundled Fraser Aird’s cross into the net before Daly bulleted his header home on the hour mark after United stopper David Hutton missed Lee Wallace’s cross.

McCoist was forced to reshuffle his back line with regular centre-halves Lee McCulloch and Bilel Mohsni suspended, so Brazilian Emilson Cribari came in for just his third start of the season to partner Sebastian Faure in the middle, while Richard Foster returned at right-back.”

Daly added: “Crib has had to wait for his chance because Jig [McCulloch] and Bilel have been doing so well. But, with them being suspended, it gave him his chance and he was excellent. Fozzy came in at right-back and did really well while big Seb stepped into centre-back, which is probably his preferred position. He and Crib were up against Kevin Kyle, who is a very experienced centre-forward and a handful but the boys did very well against him.”

Rangers still have to work for title - Jon Daly