From the Glasgow Herald

East Fife 0 Rangers 2: Daly and Black secure passage
Tuesday 21 October 2014
Box ticked, place booked in the semi-finals of the Petrofac Training Cup away to Alloa Athletic.

For Rangers, there is little other to say about last night's events at Bayview Stadium other than to run through the nuts and bolts of a victory secured by goals from Jon Daly and Ian Black.

The only thing cooler than the chill of winter in the air was the atmosphere - created by what must surely have been one of the smallest crowds to have ever watched the Ibrox club in a competitive fixture - with the second period reminiscent of nothing more than a training game.

It could be argued that the most warming entertainment of the evening was provided at the interval by the lady operating the public address system.

Caroline Maxwell, given the rather grand title of stadium announcer in the match programme, spent the break berating one of the poor fellows entrusted with the task of taking part in a penalty-taking competition before producing one of the finest escape acts of public broadcasting history when announcing the results of the half-time draw.

Appearing to have misplaced her notes, she informed the crowd in her splendid Fife brogue, to the sound of some guffaws, that the lucky fan with the golden ticket had won, erm, "some money".

With the majority of fans slipping into the early stages of hypothermia towards the end, she picked up the microphone again to announce that Stevie Campbell, the Methil club's central defender, had been voted Man of the Match. "Chosen by me," she stated most proudly. This woman deserves a larger audience.

The match certainly didn't.

There is no point in beating around the bush. Rangers played well in recording a 6-1 win over Raith Rovers at Ibrox at the weekend, but this League 2 venue brought a return to League 2 standards for large parts of a less-than-electrifying encounter.

Ally McCoist, the Rangers manager, made things relatively interesting before kick-off by replacing his favoured striking partnership of Kris Boyd and Kenny Miller for Daly and Nicky Clark and handing David Templeton his first start since a 4-1 win over Dumbarton on August 23 in place of Lewis Macleod.

The problems started when the referee, George Salmond, blew the whistle for the off. Templeton did, at least, look sharp in the opening stages and forced a save, albeit a fairly straightforward one, from Allan Fleming after just five minutes when cutting inside from the left past Ross Brown and releasing a low shot.

Fleming was required to perform greater heroics a little later, though, when denying the former Hearts winger from close-range after a deep cross from Fraser Aird had been headed into the heart of the danger area from the back post by Daly.

Rangers had pretty much all of the ball throughout, as you would expect. Yet, the kind of quality that caused Raith such problems just three days earlier was missing. Templeton, as he so often does, flattered to deceive and the cleverness and interplay produced by Boyd and Miller at the weekend was but a memory.

For all that, it was always likely to be a containing exercise for the home side and their resistance was finally broken just before the half-hour mark thanks to a move that started with no lack of skill and ended in the most almighty scramble.

Ian Black won possession and fed the ball out to Clark on the right. He produced the most delightful turn to give himself some space and put a low cross into the area that Black moved on to.

It would have been a nicely-worked goal had the ex-Hearts midfielder finished. He sclaffed his effort badly, though, and left Daly, manipulating his body in the most adroit fashion when more or less having his back to goal, to somehow force the ball in from a yard or two out.

Chances were always going to be few and far between for East Fife, but they did force Black into clearing a deflected free-kick from Allan Walker that looked goalbound and saw Jon McShane put an effort over the bar from a good position.

After Lee McCulloch had seen a 42nd-minute header rightly chalked off for offside at the other end, Gary Naysmith's side very nearly got themselves back into things in the closing moments of the opening period.

Caolan McAleer delivered a tantalising cross from the left that was asking Nathan Austin, surely one of the most ungainly individuals to have graced our great game, to race on to it and finish. He almost did.

It took a desperate late tackle from Lee Wallace to avert the danger and prevent him from pulling the trigger from a matter of yards out.

Rangers started the second period pretty much camped out in the home half and gave themselves the necessary breathing space on 57 minutes after Ewan Moyes had conceded a free-kick around 25 yards out thanks to a foul on Clark.

Black went for power above placement with his effort from the set-piece and it went straight through the gloves of Fleming and into the net.

Black flashed another dead-ball effort just wide a little later and Aird hit the bar with a wayward cross with around 20 minutes remaining, but that was about it. We had all had enough by then anyway.

Did someone put their name to that apology for a match report?

What a pathetic attempt at a football report. Sounds to me that this person is not a football follower at all but somebody that was given the job against their will and made that very plain. I suggest that the Herald make this person their Middle East correspondent if thay crave action. We will miss their ascerbic wit---not. Give me the East Fife Mail any day.