Attendance 9,018
Rangers rounded off their pre-season fixtures with a 0-2 defeat at the hands of Premiership outfit Portsmouth this afternoon in a game where the Light Blues fielded no fewer than seven youngsters during the ninety minutes.
Manager Walter Smith made six changes from Wednesday as a very much understrength Ibrox side made their first-ever visit to Fratton Park.
The Light Blue legions packed the visitors' end to capacity - some 3,000 strong - with Rangers wearing their new red change strip and temperatures approaching 80F.
The first chance of the game fell to Andrew Little in five minutes when he dispossessed Nadir Belhadj and broke through only to see his shot blocked by home goalkeeper David James.
Three minutes later Sasa Papac cut in from the left before testing James with a twenty-yard shot that was held by the goalkeeper.
Pompey should have opened the scoring in eleven minutes when John Utaka's run took him to the byeline - his cutback being skied over by Hayden Mullins.
Thirteen minutes later Niko Kranjcar's volley from a Youness Kaboul cross was held by Allan McGregor.
Portsmouth were on top - and opened the scoring on the half-hour mark with Frederic Piquionne's header from a Kaboul cross. It was a dream debut for the Frenchman, on a year-long loan deal from Lyon.
Rangers made three changes at the interval, introducing Steven Smith, Steve Davis and Aaron.
Five minutes after the restart it was 2-0 when a long clearance found Piquionne outmuscling and outpacing David Weir before rounding McGregor to stroke the ball home.
The Ibrox men were up against it - and Walter Smith made two more changes in 58 minutes when Kevin Thomson and Andrius Velicka were introduced.
Three minutes later Kaboul almost made it three with a vicious angled drive that was fisted clear by McGregor.
Rangers at last came to life - the outstanding John Fleck sending in a piledriver in 67 minutes that was inches wide.
Sixty seconds later Davis was through on goal from a long crossfield pass from Smith only to see substitute goalkeeper Jamie Ashdown block his effort.
The visitors were on top now - Velicka was next to test Ashdown with an eighteen-yard shot from a Fleck pass that was beaten away.
The substitutes were getting younger as their number increased - Andrew Shinnie and Danny Wilson were introduced in 71 minutes, Jamie Ness four minutes late, then Rory Loy on eighty. For Ness and Wilson it was their first-team debuts.
Madjid Bougherra came close in 86 minutes with a thirty-yard piledriver that flashed past the post.
Afterward's Walter Smith was predictable in his summing-up:
"We're disappointed to lose but the result was not the most important factor. Portsmouth is never an easy place to come and win. We've tried different formations pre-season and can take positives from a good schedule of fixtures that have produced a mix of results. Our squad will be tested to the full this season - we're light defensively."
The one question that must surely be asked however is why Rangers agreed to fulfill such a game against a Premiership side, knowing full well that they would have to field a weakened side due to Scotland's game in Oslo on Wednesday...
PORTSMOUTH James (Ashdown 55); Kaboul, Distin (Ward 75), Wilson, Belhadj (Ritchie 75); Utaka, Mokoena (Mahoto 75), Diop (Cranie 65), Kranjcar (Bopp 80), Mullins; Piquionne (Basinas 59)
RANGERS McGregor; Little (Shinnie 71), Weir (Wilson 71), Bougherra, Papac (Smith 45); Beasley (Aaron 45), Mendes (Davis 45), McCulloch (Ness 75), Fleck (Loy 80), Lafferty (Velicka 57); Boyd (Thomson 57)
UNUSED SUB Adam