Alan Cochrane @ Ibrox

This game was effectively killed as a contest when Steven Whittaker rifled in a terrific goal to put Rangers two ahead after 54 minutes, and any chance of a Kilmarnock comeback was gone.

Darcheville had put Rangers ahead after 3 minutes, and Killie had already had a couple of frights by then. Combe had blocked Darcheville in the first minute with Ford completing the clearance, and McCulloch had headed a corner wide when he outstripped Ford to get to the near post, before Boyd headed on a McGregor punt from hand, for the striker to use his speed and strength to hold off O'Leary, and drive a shot wide of Combe, and into the net.

But Killie didn't buckle, and what at that point looked as if it might turn into a bit of a rout, gradually became a more even contest, as the much altered Kilmarnock back four got organised, the mid-field dug in and made sure they competed for everything, and attacks started to happen. Cuellar got booked for a trip on Invincibile, but then he and David Weir showed their class by shutting down the Aussie and not allowing him to get a shot away, and when Colin Nish replaced Rhian Dodds before half-time, he had a chance of glory, but shot across McGregor, and the wrong side of the post.

The second half continued the battle for 10 minutes, but a wonder goal ended any thought of a fight-back. Steven Naismith threaded a decent pass through to Whittaker, who cut inside James Fowler and lashed a terrific shot from the edge of the box into Combe's top left-hand corner, giving the keeper no chance.

From then until the end, Rangers dominated without creating too many clear-cut chances, but if Killie's forward forays were too few, they were certainly spirited. Colin Nish upheld the tradition of the old fashioned centre forward when he put goalkeeper, ball and himself into the net, and if there's not a referee in the land who would allow that nowadays, Nat Lofthouse would have been proud. (If you don't know who he is, ask your granddad - you missed a treat.)

There was also another good performance from Mehdi Taouil, Gary Wales and Danny Invincibile never stopped running, and Simon Ford was heroic at the heart of defence. Was Jim Jefferies disappointed? No he wasn't. He felt that we had always been in the game, and after getting off to a horrendous start and fearing the worst, we didn't buckle and played our way back into it. It took a special goal for Rangers to close out the game, but once we have the injured players back, and the strongest team has four or five games under their belt, we'll be okay.

Kilmarnock: Combe, Fowler, Ford, Wales Invincibile, Murray, Dodds (Nish), O'Leary, Hamill (Fernandez), Clancy, Taouil

Rangers: McGregor, Hutton, Weir, Ferguson, Thomson, Boyd, Naismith, Darcheville (Adam), Cuellar, McCulloch, Whittaker

Referee:Alan Freeland