Bilel Mohsni last night enhanced his prospects of earning a contract with Rangers following another impressive individual display in a pre-season friendly.

Mohsni, the French-Tunisian who is on trial with the Ibrox club, started at centre-half alongside Emilson Cribari in a 1-0 win over Elgin City. The 25-year-old also started the friendly with Brora Rangers on Sunday and did well once again last night; rising well to meet a fine delivery from left-back Stevie Smith and glancing a header towards the bottom left corner early on in the match. Only a fine one-handed save from fellow trialist Raymond Jelllema denied him.

Mohsni, who previously had spells with Ipswich Town and Southend United, is a free agent and is keen to win a contract at Ibrox. Ally McCoist, who is also interested in the Bosnian internationalist Boris Pandza, is hopeful that the French-Tunisian can remain at the club and feature against Bristol City at Ashton Gate on Saturday.

McCoist played with Lee McCulloch up front alongside new signing Nicky Clark in – unusually for Rangers – a two-man strikeforce in the first half against Elgin. Clark, who scored 41 goals for Queen of the South last season, had formed a partnership with fellow debutant Jon Daly against Brora.

His manager is clearly keen to use the matches before the 2013/14 campaign gets underway to scrutinise how all of his charges perform together. Clark was joined in the starting line-up in Elgin by two other players who have arrived at Ibrox during the summer, Nicky Law and Smith, but perhaps the best chance of the opening 45 minutes fell to McCulloch when he was sent clean through by a perfectly-weighted through ball from Andy Mitchell. The Rangers captain controlled the ball on his chest nicely and steadied himself to shoot, only for Jellama to race out in time to block the attempt with his legs.

The absence of Cammy Bell, who injured himself in training yesterday, in the first half caused some concern for Rangers fans in Moray. However, the former Kilmarnock goalkeeper appeared after the break as McCoist sent out an entirely new XI.

Rangers fared far better after the break. Fraser Aird finally put the visitors in front in 63 minutes after the callow midfielder linked well with Lee Wallace; cutting inside before beating Elgin's Cieran McLean and drilling a shot into the net.

Elsewhere, St Johnstone defeated Cowdenbeath 1-0 at Central Park. David Wotherspoon got the only goal with a 20-yard free-kick just two minutes into the match.