Attendance 8,415
Rangers are through to the semi-finals of the League Cup following a desperately tight 1-0 victory over Dunfermline at East End Park tonight.
It took a late Claudio Caniggia goal to separate the teams in a dire struggle on a bitterly cold night.
Yet again there was a less-than-capacity crowd present, with huge gaps apparent amongst the home fans.
Alex McLeish rang the changes from the starting eleven at Dundee last Saturday with Kevin Muscat, Craig Moore and Ronald De Boer all absent, being replaced by Maurice Ross, Bert Konterman and Stephen Hughes.
Dunfermline, whose last victory over Rangers was all of fourteen years ago, fielded three ex-Rangers players – Gus McPherson, Scott Wilson and Barry Nicholson. Rangers started the game with a back three, but soon reverted to their customary four.
The Pars’ tactics were clear from the start with both Craig Brewster and Gary Dempsey yellow carded for fouls on Fernando Ricksen.
The home side threatened in eighteen minutes when Gary Dempsey broke through and rounded Stefan Klos, but his momentum had taken him too wide of the target and Ross cleared his effort.
After a turgid opening half-hour, Rangers finally stirred themselves in 33 minutes when an Arthur Numan pass to Michael Mols was laid off into the path of Mikel Arteta, whose curling twenty-yarder produced a superb one-handed save from Marco Ruitenbeek.
That effort would prove to be the visitors’ only attempt on target of a dreadful forty-five minutes.
Rangers had netted six on their last visit to Fife, but there was precious little prospect of a repeat this evening.
The opening stages following the interval were little better, although a spate of yellow cards kept Referee Dougie McDonald busy, with Ross, McPherson and Nicholson all booked inside the space of nine minutes.
Dunfermline stepped up the space on the hour, Barry Nicholson testing Klos with a drive from an Andrius Skerla cutback.
Six minutes later Barry Ferguson created an opening via a one-two with Michael Mols only for his final shot to be weak and directed straight at Ruitenbeek.
It was the Fifers who had all the pressure however – there were loud appeals for a penalty when Nicholson went down under a challenge from Numan, then twice within the space of a minute Klos’ goal had remarkable escapes.
A Jason Dair cross in 70 minutes found Skerla at the back post, his header across goal being met by Nicholson only for the midfielder’s goal-bound drive to be blocked by team-mate Craig Brewster.
Scarcely had the vast traveling support drew breath following that escape than Klos was producing an instinctive save to deny Steve Crawford.
The Cup Holders had their backs against the wall, yet finally broke the deadlock in 78 minutes when substitute Claudio Caniggia – a hat-trick hero on his last visit to Fife – headed home an Arteta free-kick despite Ruitenbeek’s valiant attempt to save.
Dunfermline attempted to reply to what must have been a sickening blow, but it was Rangers who twice in the closing minutes almost struck on the break – firstly when Shota Arveladze’s cross-field pass freed Caniggia only for the Argentinian Internationalist to lose his footing at the vital moment, then right on the final whistle a Ricksen cross was inches away from the inrushing Arveladze.
Rangers’ win takes them forward to a February semi-final appointment with either Aberdeen or Hearts, when hopefully both the entertainment and the weather will be a touch warmer.
Alex McLeish afterwards commented:
"We’re delighted to get through. The players deserve great credit for the strength of their mentality. Both Craig Moore and Ronald De Boer called off this afternoon. We didn’t create much in the first-half, but the goal was a great delivery from Arteta."
DUNFERMLINE ATHLETIC Ruitenbeek; Wilson, McPherson (Kilgannon 79), Skerla; Bullen, Nicholson, Dair, Mason (Hampshire 85), Dempsey; Brewster, Crawford
UNUSED SUBS Stillie, Karnebeek, Walker
RANGERS Klos; Ross, Malcolm, Konterman, Numan; Ricksen, Ferguson, Hughes (Arveladze 55), Arteta; Mols (Caniggia 69), Lovenkrands
UNUSED SUBS Latapy, Muscat, McGregor
REFEREE Dougie McDonald