ARNOLD SCHOLTEN, at 33 the oldest player in a team of prodigies, struck a blow for the wrinklies with a beautifully controlled 25 yard drive that gave Ajax a victory at Ibrox last night that was less comprehensive than expected. Still, it was enough to leave Rangers pointless and out of the European Cup with two group matches still to play.

Nobody could claim that Scholtens goal in the 38th minute was a surprise, even if Ajax had not exactly overrun their hosts on a wet, slippery Ibrox surface.

Patience is among the most notable of an array of virtues the Dutch bring to their game and they were, characteristically, in no hurry to justify the pre match expectation that they would rush the Scots into submission.

Indeed, they played the entire first half with almost clinical cool, retaining possession, probing for delicate parts in the Rangers set up and, generally speaking, relying for their menace on the occasional burst into the home penalty area.

The tempo suited a Rangers team who had to go through their own familiarisation routine, with the youngsters Shields and Wilson drafted into the defence and Durrant only an occasional presence these days recruited to midfield.

Rangers employed a back five, too, with Shields on the right and Robertson on the left making no pretensions to being wing backs. Their assignment was simply to stay close to Babangida and Overmars, the free spirits on the Ajax flanks.

The result was an impression that Rangers were the visitors, with Ajax playing most of the time in their opponents' territory. Even before Scholten scored Kluivert had squandered a couple of feasible opportunities.

He looked rusty when Frank de Boer's extraordinary pass flew 60 yards and dropped at the feet of the young striker, racing into the area. Kluivert's first touich sent the ball straight to Snelders; it was an untypical loss of control.

Veldman had made an even more embarrassing mess of his opportunity when he played the ball in to Scholten from the right and the latter back heeled it back into his path. From only 15 yards Veldman "shanked" his left foot shot almost out to the corner flag.

Scholten's control was faultless, however, when he gave Ajax the lead. Frank de Boer had joined the frolics around the Ranoer penalty area and picked the ball up on the left before sliding it towards the big midfielder, who met it 25 yards out and, with the sweetest of connections, drove it low and hard away to the right of Snelders.

It was difficult to determine whether Ajax's reluctance to rub it in for much of the second half derived from sympathy for their opponents or their own lethargy. But their failure to impose themselves as authoritatively as they had before the break should have brought Rangers an equaliser with almost an hour played.

Melchiot looked almost uncaring as he allowed Laudrup to break away on the right. The Dane delivered his cross into a busy penalty area, where the ball broke from a scramble straight to Albertz.

With the ball perfectly teed up for his favoured left foot and a vacant goal only eight yards away, the German blasted the shot feet too high. If was shocking finishing.

Rangers manager Walter Smith pinpointed a second half miss by Jorg Albertz which might have given injury and suspension hit Rangers a platform for victory. "If that had gone in we might have managed to put Ajax under real pressure for the first time in the two games," said Smith, who was without four players because of bans, including Richard Gough and Paul Gascoigne.

"I was pleased with my players but you would still like to have taken something from the game. The disappointment is still there like the other results and we have a hit to do yet to restore full pride," added Smith.