The boos that rang out around Ibrox at full-time echoed a disapproving emotion. Derek McInnes is now four matches into his Rangers reign without a single victory, and Thursday night’s Europa League exit will sting more than most.
A 1-1 draw against Polish outfit Jagiellonia Bialystock wasn’t enough to overturn a 2-1 deficit from the first leg, and Rangers’ European campaign in the competition’s third-tier qualifying round is over. The manner of the defeat will trouble McInnes as much as the result itself.
Lawrence Shankland, representing the club he supported as a boy, converted from the penalty spot to open the scoring and give the hosts a foothold in the tie. Rangers carried the better of the play through the opening 45 minutes, and for a spell it looked as though the comeback was on.
McInnes made a string of second-half substitutions that seemed to knock his side out of rhythm rather than sharpen it. The Poles capitalised on the disruption in the 65th minute, when Nik Prelec rose above two Rangers defenders to head home a cross from Anders Klynge, levelling the tie on the night and putting Jagiellonia 3-2 up on aggregate.
Rangers pushed for a way back, and substitute Bojan Miovski nearly provided it, meeting a low ball into the box from Findlay Curtis with a free header from just six yards out. It drifted wide, and with it went the club’s last real chance to keep the tie alive.
The final whistle brought little sympathy from the home support. Four games into the McInnes era, Rangers are still searching for a first win, and a European exit at this stage will only intensify the scrutiny he’s under.
There’s still a route back onto the continental stage. A place in the Conference League awaits if Rangers can get past Czech side Jablonec in the next round, but for a club with this level of ambition, dropping into European football’s third tier is far from where they expected to be starting the season.
