Rangers' winter of discontent plumbed new depths yesterday as Dunfermline recorded their first victory over the Ibrox club for more than three decades.
The champions are now eight points behind the Premier League leaders Celtic, are ravaged by injuries to key players and confidence is at its lowest ebb since Alex McLeish took over, with the manager taking an hour to emerge from the visitors' dressing-room.
"We were caught cold and lost a bizarre second goal. This makes it hard for us in the league but we'll keep fighting and look to welcome key players back soon," he said.
The Champions League has gone, the hope of a UEFA Cup place disappeared when Panathinaikos beat them last Tuesday and now their hold on the championship is tenuous.
Not that Dunfermline cared at all for Rangers' woes. The fact that they had not beaten the Glasgow club on their own ground since 1970 had been more a gorilla than a monkey on their backs so they enjoyed this famous victory. It was secured courtesy of a fine early Stevie Crawford strike and a late and, as McLeish said, very curious own-goal from Paolo Vanoli.
The home team, clearly happier than the visitors on the synthetic surface, were comfortable and composed and troubled only occasionally in the second half when Peter Lovenkrands sent a cross inches wide and then saw Stillie block another effort well.
There was, though, a lack of conviction about all Rangers tried to do. The end came on 85 minutes when Barry Nicholson's free-kick was headed into the box by Andy Tod and inadvertently touched on by Fernando Rickson towards Vanoli who seemed to handle but then, having got away with that, trundled a low attempted passback wide of Klos.
Meanwhile, Celtic manager Martin O'Neill saluted Bobo Balde's resilience after he bounced back from Champions League heartache to inspire a 3-2 home win over Dundee on Saturday.
The defender's handball against Lyon condemned Celtic to a defeat which ended their hopes of reaching the Champions League knock-out stages. He made another error when his mistake allowed Mark Fotheringham to cancel out Henrik Larsson's 18th goal of the season.
However, Balde bounced back and revitalised his team-mates by heading Celtic in front before John Kennedy pounced late on to put the game out of Dundee's reach. Lee Mair claimed a late consolation for Dundee.
DUNFERMLINE: Stillie, Skerla, Scott Wilson, Tod, Bullen, Nicholson, Mason, Darren Young, Derek Young (Dempsey 66), Crawford, Brewster (Hunt 77). Subs not used: Ruitenbeek, McNicol, McDermott. Goals: Crawford 5, Vanoli 85 og.
RANGERS: Klos, Ricksen, Berg, Malcolm, Ball, Burke, Hughes, Vanoli, Lovenkrands, Mols (Arveladze 72), Capucho (Ostenstad 45). Subs not used: McGregor, Ross, Gibson. Booked: Ricksen, Malcolm.
Referee: A Freeland (Scotland).
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