Dunfermline Athletic 0 Rangers 4

It was a beautiful autumn day, ideal for the playing of football, but only one team was able to manage it. Rangers scored early through Bocanegra, soon doubled their league with an Edu strike and eased to a comfortable win with a second half Naismith double. The Pars were simply not at the races.

Rangers take the lead

Macca made one change from last week’s selection, with Andy Barrowman’s greater physical presence giving him the nod over Andy Kirk to play the lone striker’s role. Otherwise, it was the usual suspects – Gallacher in goal, a back four of Jason Thomson, Dowie, Keddie and McCann with 5 in midfield, Mason, Ryan Thomson and Burns, Cardle and Graham. The new(ish) signings were living up to their reputation for being susceptible to injuries with Hardie, Rutkiewicz and Easton all absent, along with Phinn , McDougall and Bell and so the bench was pretty predictable too – Smith, Kirk, Potter, Buchanan, Willis, Boyle and Byrne.

As for the visitors – they made a few changes to the side that had crashed out at the Bairnabeu – back came former Par Alan McGregor between the sticks, £9m player (possibly) Nikica Jelavic to lead the attack with Lafferty, and Scotland Internationalist Steven Naismith would also start on the right of a 4-4-2.

The Pars kicked off determined to start the game well and not give the opposition any early encouragement. It was a decent plan and was working for eight minutes with the Pars knocking the ball around reasonable well, when Keddie conceded a free-kick 30 yards out in a central position. Wilde whipped the ball in, it took a touch off McCann and Gallacher turned it past the post at the last second. A let-off, or so we thought, but from the corner Bocanegra rose to bullet the ball into the top right hand corner. 1-0 Rangers.

After another scare when McCann’s blocking of Naismith’s shot saw the ball loop up but straight to Gallacher, we began to see a little of the Pars as an offensive force. Our first sight of Cardle on the ball in 13 minutes saw the winger cut back onto his right but his driven cross was inches ahead of the inrushing Ryan Thomson. On the other wing Jason Thomson managed to get past Papac but namesake Ryan miscued the cutback.

If conceding an early goal was bad enough, conceding a second in 17 minutes virtually finished the game as a contest. With Dowie on the deck and the rest of the Pars defence half-expecting a whistle there seemed little danger when Maurice Edu got the ball 25 yards out, but half a second later it was 2-0 as the American hit an unstoppable drive right just inside Gallacher’s right hand post.

A gubbing now looked on the cards – last ditch blocks by Keddie (twice) and Dowie gave prevented more damage to the score sheet, each time conceding a corner at their near post which were defended slightly better than the first –and the Pars looked as if they would be happy to keep the score to 2 at the break. True, Barrowman’s looping header from Mason’s cross was helped over the bar by McGregor who was also forced into a save when Burns was given time and space to run at the Rangers defence, but that was after Gallacher had again saved from another Wylde free-kick in a similar position to that which led to the first goal (an incident which saw McCann take a knock in the face in dubious circumstances) and before Davis had come to life and got forward to get a firm but inaccurate header on Jelavic’s centre.

The Pars did enjoy some sustained possession just before the interval, but with their movement not equalling that of Rangers, eventually lost patience, tried to hurry things, lost the ball and were hit on the break. Davis did most of the hard work before slipping the ball to Wylde but Gallacher blocked well, then was quick to grab the ball from sliding over the line to keep the deficit at two.

Half time: Pars 0 Gers 2

The Dunfermline team was out for the second half a good two minutes before Rangers reappeared – time for all of “Into the Valley” to be played over the PA and most of “Dunfermline are (sic) the team we all adore”. The visitors had taken the time to make one change – Ortiz replacing the volatile Lafferty, taking up position on the right meaning that Naismith would move to the centre, the consequences of which would soon be apparent.

Any hopes that the Pars would be a changed team and start making passes and keeping possession evaporated within 20 seconds as for the umpteenth time in the match concession was conceded cheaply and Rangers ended up winning a corner. This was defended but it wasn’t long before Rangers scored a third. Again, the ball was lost in the Rangers half, Davis had space to break and he played the perfect pass to Naismith who timed his run across and beyond the back 4 to slip the ball past Gallacher . 3-0 Rangers.