Inverness CT 0 - 2 Rangers: Dorin Goian settles defensive worries for Rangers

RANGERS are still in the hunt for new faces, despite director of football Gordon Smith revealing that the hopes of a quick Carlos Cuellar return are dead.

Nevertheless, while the defensive situation will continue to cast a shadow over manager Ally McCoist's thoughts in the build-up to Thursday night's Europa League clash with Maribor, the settling in of Dorin Goian will have eased some of those woes, while the return of Jamie Ness to the first-team fold has at least diluted the creative conundrums.

With both Steven Whittaker and Sasa Papac suspended and David Weir still not fit, the fact centre-back Goian strolled through the match is one of the few positives his manager has to cling to. He adapted easily to a switch in partner, when Kyle Bartley went off with the groin injury which now renders him a major doubt for the trip to Slovenia, and was replaced by young Ross Perry, who was making his first team debut.

If Rangers' ability to come through the 90 minutes with a clean sheet and present the home attack very few opportunities to test Allan McGregor was pleasing for McCoist, the performance of Ness will have delighted his manager. Back for his first SPL start since injuring his groin in the warm-up for the Sporting Lisbon clash in April, he gave the kind of display to suggest that while he missed out on the Uefa competitions last season, he is a virtual certainty to get his first taste of European football this week.

Against Inverness he used his wide range of passing and, although still shy of full match fitness, displayed the maturity of performance which forced everyone to sit up and take notice last season. Slotting into the heart of the team, he offered the Ibrox side the kind of balance they have been missing in the earlier games this term.

His pulling of the strings took some of the onus off Steven Davis, freed up Steven Naismith and Juna Ortiz to take a gander further up field in support of Nikica Jelavic and while Rangers still couldn't score from open play, his contribution ensured they enjoyed a major percentage of possession and that will be welcomed on the bigger stage.

On Saturday, though, Rangers still required some timely interventions from the officials to guarantee all three points. The two second-half penalty decisions swung the game in favour of the defending champions, a fact conceded by McCoist and colourfully criticised by Inverness Caledonian Thistle manager Terry Butcher, who feels that too many dubious penalty awards have punished his players already this year.

While they escaped a handball shout against them in the first half, they showed some positive signs of attack, mainly courtesy of the irrepressible Jonny Hayes, Richie Foran and the advancing Aaron Doran.However, the result hinged on the 59th-minute incident which gave Rangers their first of two spot kicks and led to the dismissal of Ross Tokely. The defender looked to have timed his tackle on Naismith to perfection but while he won the ball, the officials ruled he had also taken out his opponent.

It was a blow to the home side who had, until then, done a commendable job of containing their more illustrious guests and left Butcher wondering if someone had banned tackling in the box without informing him. But despite the protests, Jelavic was able to step up and open the scoring.

Seven minutes later he was given the opportunity to double the tally after a slight brushing together of players in the box ended with Goian crumbled on the turf.

It was unsurprising that a no-nonsense centre-half like Butcher found it questionable that the defender had been felled so easily.

While Jelavic this time saw Ryan Esson parry his spot kick, Maurice Edu was quickest to follow in and score from the rebound to put Rangers 2-0 ahead and firmly in control.

McCoist was more supportive of his player but was honest enough to admit he had doubts about the validity of the first award. It did, in his mind, balance out a fourth-minute Jelavic "goal" which was chopped off for offside and that call for handball which the referee had blanked.

There were plenty of talking points, McCoist said before adding: "I would be of the opinion that the biggest talking point was that we deserved to win the game and we did."

Butcher, however, countered: "The game swung on that first penalty because until them the game was pretty much even stevens. I have seen the second penalty again on TV and although there is a coming together of bodies, the Rangers guy makes more of it than he should do.

"But the wheels came off with those calls. I spoke to the ref coming off the pitch and he said he would look at it again. I will as well and decide whether to make an appeal. I thought Ross Tokely made a great tackle but I don't think we are allowed to tackle people in the box any more."

No-one was disputing the second of Edu's yellow cards, which came in the 74th minute.Already the recipient of a soft booking in the first half, he was reckless as he clattered into Hayes, giving the referee the perfect opportunity to even up player numbers according to his own manager.