ROB Kiernan and Danny Wilson have been fairly inseparable thus far during their time at Rangers. These two men, paraded together as Mark Warburton's first two signings back in June, have spent much of their first six months funnelling the ball backwards and forwards between each other on the halfway line as the Ibrox club have enjoyed dominance in their Ladbrokes Championship matches. When St Johnstone came to Ibrox to knock them out of the League Cup, though, both men soon found themselves together in the firing line.

But it was a recent injury to Wilson that has really complicated their mostly cosy duopoly at the heart of the Ibrox defence. It handed Dominic Ball, on-loan from Tottenham Hotspur, his chance to stake a claim for first-team football and it is one that the 20-year-old from Welwyn Garden City has taken. When Wilson returned to fitness, Warburton's answer to the conundrum for the away defeat at Easter Road was to field all three of his side's centre halves but in general terms three into two won't go and how the Englishman chooses to square the circle on Saturday against Alloa Athletic promises to be instructive to see.

There is, perhaps, a danger in overreacting to events at Easter Road on Sunday. While Wilson can't accept too much blame for the fine individual strike from Jason Cummings which opened the scoring at Easter Road, and it was Ball and goalkeeper Wes Foderingham who got themselves in a muddle to allow Paul Hanlon to head in the second, this was an even match which could have gone either way. Although the margin between Rangers and Hibs at the top still stands at a comfortable five points, there is a renewed sense that the Ibrox club are very much in a title race at the top of the Ladbrokes Championship.

“Of course we’re in a title race," said Kiernan, "but we’re going to do everything we can to make sure that we’re the ones who will come out on top at the end of the season. There was no reason for us to feel disappointed because we played some good stuff but it was their day so we go again."

This 24-year-old former Republic of Ireland international from Rickmansworth has learned to accept the anguished reaction which tends to follow the club's occasional setbacks. The carryover from the defeat at Easter Road has combined with the media storm over the club's financial figures and a Court of Session ruling in relation to the club's previous use of Employee Benefit Trusts in what has been a tumultuous week.

"I didn't realise quite how big the club is until I got up here," said Kiernan. "I spoke to a few people on the phone about it, but until you get up here and actually experience it for yourself you are never going to know. I thrive on it and I like it. It's the whole package, the lifestyle, the media, you go out in town and you get recognised. It's all part and parcel of being here.

"Every single week we have that pressure because everyone wants to take points off us," he added. "So it's the norm now. Our standards are so high that we don't want to lose a game, but it's happened and we have to go again.

"All we need to do is look at our first 11 games and how we did then. There’s no reason why we can’t do that again – we have the quality here to do that, without a doubt. We would have [taken a five-point lead at this stage]. We're still a very good team with very good players. We'll just carry on doing what we're doing.”