Manager Ally McCoist believes the 2-0 win over Motherwell in the Scottish Communities League Cup proves Rangers can still compete with the best Scottish football has to offer.
Goals from Lee McCulloch and Dean Shiels secured victory at Ibrox and allowed the Light Blues to progress to the quarter-finals of the competition. The third-round tie was the first opportunity for Rangers to face Clydesdale Bank Premier League opposition since being consigned to liquidation in the summer and voted into the Irn-Bru Third Division.
"It was really satisfying. I thought the performance warranted the victory and the two goals were top-class," said McCoist.
"It's a wee indicator to ourselves and the support that we can play against teams from the top of the league and higher up in the divisions but we can't get carried away. It's a very small step on what's going to be a long road. I make no apologies for telling the supporters that - we've got miles and miles to go. But it shows you, in a one-off game, we can compete with anybody."
Ten SPL clubs voted against newco Rangers' application for entry to the top-flight in July. But McCoist denied there was additional satisfaction from reminding the SPL of exactly what they are missing as they dumped Motherwell.
He said: "Not at all. I just wanted to win the game to progress into the next round of the cup. I was aware of who we were playing and they are top of the SPL and arguably the in-form team in the country at the moment. All it did was give us an opportunity to see how we can compete against a team like that at the moment and we did it very well."
For Motherwell boss Stuart McCall, there was little in the way of positives as his SPL leaders failed to match the high standards they have set for themselves this season.
He said: "I was disappointed with the way we played and performed. I said before the game we would have to be at our best to win this game. We didn't get anywhere near the heights we got on Sunday or have done all season.
"If you asked anybody who's watched Rangers all season, they've never played anything like that but it was always going to be the case.
"I was certainly aware of what we would face - it was their biggest game in terms of an SPL club coming here. But I look at my own side and we lost too many battles."
Source: PA
