Durie states case

Rangers 4 McCoist 21, Durie 39, 45, Ferguson 81 Raith Rovers 0 Attendance: 42,498

THIS may have seemed like just another day at the office for Rangers but, with the Brazilian Jardel sitting in the stand and the Dutchman Peter van Vossen arriving to sign tomorrow, the competition for places in the Ibrox attack is becoming even more fierce than usual.

Ally McCoist and Gordon Durie were given chances to reserve their places yesterday and both put forward cohesive arguments. While McCoist was largely anonymous for much of the game, he did open the scoring with his 231st league goal for Rangers, a new club record.Durie grabbed two to take his tally to 11 in 10 games. If the newcomers needed any indication of the goal-scoring standards they will be expected to meet these two examples were more than adequate. The selection of Rangers' attack will now be a delicious conundrum for Walter Smith to ponder.

There was never any real doubt over Rangers' victory yesterday, Raith Rovers came to defend in numbers and Colin Cameron was their only player who looked even slightly threatening. However, there is no shame in failing to score against this Rangers defence - they have now gone 795 minutes of domestic football without conceding a goal.

Until McCoist's goal they had enjoyed their customary feast of possession but had failed to penetrate. It was David Robertson who finally unlocked Raith's rearguard with a piercing run down the left. As Durie dragged the defence toward goal Robertson intelligently cut back to McCoist who picked his spot.

Their second came from the right as Brian Laudrup found Durie at the near post. It was Durie who popped up again a minute before the break with a scissor-kick volley after Robertson returned down the left to feed the striker.

With the game over at half-time the second half was predictably dismal and only brightened in the 82nd minute when Ian Ferguson rounded off the scoring with a low drive from the edge of the box.