No early mistakes from Ibrox men this time as flying Finn puts paid to Irish hopes Johansson wings in twice to put Rangers in next round

(Aggregate: 7-3)

RANGERS made it into the next round of the UEFA cup last night after a scrappy victory over Irish part-timers, Shelbourne.

Two goals from the young Finnish player Jonatan Johansson, one after only three minutes, the other on the 90 minute mark, gave them victory on the night and an overall aggregate win of 7-3.

Despite the victory coach Dick Advocaat was far from pleased with his side's performance. ''I am still not satisfied the way we played and we have to do much better,'' he said after the game.

Certainly he will have food for thought this morning. Despite the appearance of new signings Dutchman Arthur Numan and Andrei Kanchelskis the Ibrox club flattered to deceive and despite all their dominance struggled to take the scoring chances that came their way.

It was that aspect, among many others, which will cause the Rangers coach most concern.

Advocaat also voiced concern over the fitness of his players and said some had still to get into shape for the toils of the league campaign. ''Once that happens we can start to build a team,'' he said.

Of the game itself Advocaat said he had been pleased with his sides performance in the first 20 minutes, but felt after that some of the players form shaded off.

The Rangers coach used the after match press conference to criticise Blackburn Rovers for holding out on the price for his signing target Colin Hendry. Advocaat said Everton had signed John Collins from Monaco, a player of similar age and experience as Hendry, for around half of the #5m that the English club is holding out for.

On the positive side for Rangers the best player on show was clearly Numan, who showed he had the qualities to prosper in Scottish football. His strong running up the flanks created all sorts of chances and it took a good save from Gough in the Shelbourne goal to deny him a goal on his Rangers debut.

For Advocaat and his new signings it was a successful home debut, but they will realise there are more difficult obstacles ahead. Perhaps the 3-0 deficit which Rangers faced after 49 minutes of the first leg before scoring five second half goals to win was the required kick up the backside they required, because last night they started strongly and opened the scoring through Johansson after only three minutes.

However, what will worry Advocaat is their inability to turn that early dominance into goals. The Rangers coach had predicted before the match it would be a close game as Shelbourne would come to defend and despite his prediction being correct he would have hoped his side would have taken more chances.

More than 40,000 fans gathered at Ibrox to get their first glimpse at Advocaat's new team and favoured formation.

With a 5-3 lead from the first leg they were never going to be in trouble and Advocaat will hope with their first league game against Hearts on Sunday the winning momentum will continue.

Despite their victory it was clear the new players will take time to learn the system. Although men like Kanchelskis and Numan are blessed with great individual skill they have yet to experience a hard tackling Scottish game played in a gale on a cold winter's day.

In the first-half it was all one- way traffic as Rangers dominated the midfield through Barry Ferguson who was releasing good balls to Kanchelskis down the right flank and to Numan who was making strong runs down the left.

In fact, Numan must have thought he had made a dream Rangers debut when he had the ball in the net in under 30 seconds but he was clearly offside.

However, two minutes later Kanchelskis found space on the right and put a perfect cutback into the path of Johansson who steered the ball low below Gough for his first goal for the Ibrox club.

The few chances Shelbourne did create came, as they did in the first leg, through their winger Dessie Baker, although he was better marshalled by the Rangers defence last night.

The only blot on the Ibrox first-half copybook was a booking for club captain Amoruso for a clumsy challenge on Shelbourne striker Morley five minutes before half-time.

In the second-half, Barry Ferguson, who was singled out for praise by Advocaat, started to stamp his authority on the game, as did second-half substitute Amato who had come on for Kanchelskis.

Rangers survived a second-half penalty claim when Numan seemed to handle in the box, but apart from that they were never troubled.

With 90 minutes on the clock a cutback from Gattuso from an Albertz corner fell to Johansson in the six-yard box whose low shot beat Gough.

Afterwards Johansson said he had gone into the game full of confidence after his performance in the first leg when he helped Rangers turn round the three goal deficit and was the major influence in their second-half revival.

''It is a burden off my shoulders to score my first goals for the club,'' said Johansson. ''The result was everything last night and we are still getting used to each others strengths and it will take a while for the team to start playing well together.''

Shelbourne manager Dermot Keeley said he felt Rangers had not put them under too much pressure despite having home advantage.

''We deserved an equaliser for the spirit and effort we showed,'' said Keeley.

''Giving away the second goal at the end takes a bit of the gloss off things."

Rangers - Niemi, Porrini, Moore, Amoruso, Numan, Kanchelskis, B Ferguson, van Bronckhorst, Albertz, Durie, Johansson. Substitutes - Amato, Brown, I Ferguson, Gattuso, Thern, Petric, Graham.

Shelbourne - Gough, Geoghegan, McCartney, Scully, Baker, Rutherford, Smith, Fenlon, Fitzgerald, Morley, Kelly. Substitutes - O'Brien, Neville, Gifford, Byrne, Baker, Sheridan, Campbell.

Referee - Miroslaw Milewski (Poland).