Rangers 2 - 1 Dunfermline Athletic: Rangers breath sigh of relief but SFA may review Aluko’s tumble

SINCE they lost Steven Naismith a month ago, Rangers have scored seven times in five games. Three of these strikes have come from the penalty spot and two in the form of own goals.

The victory over Dunfermline that allowed the champions to taste victory for the first time in three outings relied on both their methods of recent times for manufacturing goals.

It has emerged that the SFA could review the Sone Aluko fall in the vicinity of some visiting players that earned Ally McCoist’s men a spot-kick. Simulation is what they are looking for. In truth, there is an air of pretence about the entire Ibrox club at the minute.

Off the field, the owner Craig Whyte wants to act out the role of strong leader and solid funder. Meanwhile, in his offices he must groan about the SFA’s investigation into him as a “fit and proper” person after he confirmed his disqualification as a director, and fret about how he might possibly manage the club’s finances to ensure the institution doesn’t go under in the near future.

His manager, Ally McCoist, will surely empathise. His team are simulating the steady progress of league leaders. They retain a four-point advantage over Celtic. However, they are becoming an increasingly difficult watch. In the majority of his post-match interviews across the past month, McCoist has had to include a line about his team not playing as they can, or having disappointed with their performance. It was there again as he lamented his team not putting the game out of sight on the back of an opening 20-minute pounding and a series of chances in the second-half that Nikica Jelavic, in the main, was slapdash in failing to convert.

Rangers deserved their win, even if Jim McIntyre was annoyed that, late on, Andy Barrowman didn’t make more of a volley close-in at the back post and Alex Keddie was similarly wasteful with a headed opportunity so inviting the player admitted he “saw the lights” in putting too much on it. Over-eagerness was perhaps understandable since he had earlier been the own-goal scorer – his second in two weeks after one in the 3-3 draw with Aberdeen last weekend. The defender, though, was not the culprit. Paul Gallacher would have to go down as the lead gifter after the goalkeeper drove a clearance against Keddie’s hip, only to see it shoot right back past him.

Yet, despite the self-inflicted nature of the first goal, McIntrye was equally entitled to be thoroughly hacked off that his side found themselves 2-0 down on the half hour mark. Aluko, who has proved one of the few sources of craft for his new club in the two games he has played for them, also showed he could be crafty in going down after jinking inside the box and drifting past Martin Hardie.

The Fife club’s manager, having viewed several replays of the incident, was in no doubt about the error made by referee Steve Conroy in granting an award Jelavic converted. “It’s never a penalty in a month of Sundays,” said McIntyre. “The referee’s in a great position. It’s just not a penalty. There’s no contact at all. There’s three players round him and it’s a dive. He (Aluko) is obviously trying to get his team [further] into a lead. I’m not going to blame Aluko, the bottom line is the referee’s there to spot these things and he’s got to do his job and he didn’t do it today.”

There are bigger issues for Rangers to concern themselves. They are precisely where Celtic were six weeks ago in that right now no game can be considered a gimme. Dunfermline, who showed no signs of making any impression, turned their latest trip to Ibrox into an uncomfortable afternoon for the home legions when Joe Cardle, set up by a brilliant diagonal from Martin Hardie on his return from a three-month lay-off, nipped past his marker and cracked a low drive in at the near post only a minute on from the penalty.

Cardle then spent the early part of the second-half giving Steven Whittaker dizzy spells before being forced off with a knock. Losing their best players to injury has been the story of the season for Dunfermline. No team, indeed, has been more debilitated by ailments to their players. It is credit to them that they are 11th. They have kept going, and done so within games that have seemed to be shaping up as trouncings for them. As with Celtic Park the other week, the final whistle on Saturday was greeted with relief by the home side. The relief, mind you, might prove only temporary.