IT was Armed Forces Day at Ibrox, but, as it turned out, Rangers weren’t quite able to demonstrate their usual firepower.

This was far from the most impressive performance of the season by Mark Warburton’s side. Indeed a well-marshalled Livingston outfit refused to fly the white flag and won many individual skirmishes on the day. However, when the dust had settled, the Englishman still had his 10th successive win as manager, with another three goals scored to none conceded. While a mini-inquest proceeded in the dressing room among senior players afterwards about what was perceived as a drop in standards, it is doubtful in the extreme whether they would have managed to convert this one into a win in such routine manner 12 months back.

Who knows what Dave King – who said this week that Rangers would challenge for the top-flight title next year – made of it all, but Warburton’s theory was that it was good to talk.

“We fell way below our standards,” the Englishman said. “That is not lack of respect to the opposition – far from it – but we know we didn’t move the ball well. We didn’t take care of it. We didn’t create enough chances. We dropped too deep.

“The good thing from that is that we had an inquest,” he added. “The players demanded it and we let them talk. The players were angry because they weren’t at the right level this afternoon. They had a few heated words and that’s great because we will work hard this week and demand even more. It’s a healthy thing to do.”

Two representatives of 39 Engineer Regiment abseiled from the top of the Sandy Jardine Stand to present referee Greg Aitken with the match ball but they weren’t the only well-drilled troops at Ibrox yesterday. Now that the shock of the new has worn off, Scottish managers are wisening up when it comes to devising strategies to thwart Warburton’s men and Mark Burchill may have discovered the new blueprint. His masterplan was a 4-4-1-1 shape with Scott Pittman ruffling the feathers of former Livingston player Andy Halliday. Former Ranger and skipper Darren Cole and Hugo Faria attempted to outmuscle Jason Holt and Gedion Zelalem in midfield, while a pair of converted strikers in Gary Glen and Miles Hippolyte provided nuisance value against Rangers’ flying full-backs.

Livingston remain rock bottom with one point, but Burchill drew huge positives.

“I think we got our tactics absolutely spot on,” he said. “A lot of our players played very, very well but there is a gulf. We kept them to five shots on target and I don’t think many teams will do that at Ibrox this year. Anyone who was watching would see that the gulf between Rangers and Livingston isn’t anywhere near as big as anyone was expecting.”

As successful as the visitors approach was, they almost played themselves into bother at times. Nathan Oduwa caught Craig Sives on the ball to present Martyn Waghorn with a run on goal, but Darren Jamieson was down well.

And they had no answer to a bolt from the blue. Captain Lee Wallace had been greeted with a large banner in his honour as he trooped on to the field and he lived up to his headline billing here. Sixteen minutes were on the clock when he took matters into his own hands from an abortive Rangers free-kick to lash in a 30-yard drive which was past Jamieson in a flash.

The occasionally-uncertain looking Wes Foderingham nearly misjudged a ball as Liam Buchanan hared on to a through pass, but most of the threat was at the other end. Waghorn felt he might have had a penalty before he got the goal which made the game safe.

Barrie McKay found the former Leicester and Wigan striker in space and he used a number of midfield runners as decoys before lashing the ball in low off the post.

The second half was something of a non-event, which must have continued to please Burchill, at least until the ball was funnelled into substitute Nicky Law’s feet and he lashed it high into the net from 15 yards.