Whatever vision Danny Rohl may have of how his Rangers team will play in the months and years to come, it is safe to presume it won’t look anything remotely like this.
This was a night when fingernails were chewed and the Ibrox crowd roared themselves hoarse in frustration at what they were watching for large swathes of the 90 minutes.
When the full-time whistle sounded, the sigh of relief would have been heard all the way along the M8 in Leith as Rangers clung on for dear life to claim victory over Hibs.
Rohl’s side had rewritten the definition of winning ugly. Yet, for what it lacked in artistic merit, or even basic fundamentals at times, this result carries weighty significance.
Indeed, there was almost something counter-intuitive about it in so much that one of the poorest displays of Rohl’s tenure should move Rangers up the league table into third place.
They now sit only three points behind Celtic and nine behind league leaders Hearts ahead of a blockbuster clash at Tynecastle this coming weekend.
But one thing’s for sure. If Rangers are to have any hope of landing a blow on Derek McInnes’ side, they will need to be vastly improved than they were here.
A first-half header from Manny Fernandez was enough for Rohl to make it six wins and two draws in the league so far.
With McInnes watching from the stand, he will have seen nothing to fear. This was as jittery and unconvincing a performance as you could ever wish to see.
Connor Barron and Mikey Moore were the standouts, but the whole team will collectively need to raise their game to take anything away from Hearts.
Hibs will kick themselves for the failure to take anything from this. They enjoyed plenty of decent possession and preyed on Rangers’ nervousness in defence but failed to punish the home side.
Rohl wanted to freshen things up and made five changes to the team that lost 2-1 to Ferencvaros in the Europa League last Thursday.
Bojan Miovski, who had scored three goals in his last two games, missed out due to a slight knock, while Dujon Sterling came back in to make his first start since April after recovering from a long-term injury.
Nico Raskin and James Tavernier were among those to drop to the bench, while young Findlay Curtis was handed a first start since the Champions League qualifier away at Panathinaikos in late July.
Hibs boss David Gray made three changes to the team that beat Falkirk 3-0 last time out, with Rocky Bushiri missing due to his involvement with DR Congo in the upcoming African Cup of Nations.
Elie Youan made only his second start in almost a year for the Easter Road side on a night when victory would have moved them above Rangers in the league table.
Rangers defender Nasser Djiga is another who will be heading to Afcon with Burkina Faso and he almost signed off by heading in the opening goal from a Connor Barron corner after only five minutes.
But that early sight of goal proved to be a false dawn for Rangers. For the next half-hour or so, they were absolutely dreadful.
The system just wasn’t working at all. Ibrox was a bag of nerves any time Djiga and Fernandez were on the ball and trying to bring it out of defence.
It got the stage that the two of them were petrified to play a pass forward. Back they went time and time again. The crowd were reaching boiling point.
Such was their ineptitude, Barron had to step in to take the ball off them, effectively playing as a sweeper at times, but leaving the team a body light in midfield.
It meant that Rangers couldn’t build any sustained pressure and Rohl must have been tempted to change things given how exposed they were.
Hibs weren’t brilliant either, but they were comfortably the more threatening of the two teams as a sense of anxiety spread around the stadium.
They should have taken the lead from a corner, only for Sterling to stick out a leg and hook the ball off the line after skipper Warren O’Hora headed past Butland.
It was completely against the run of play, then, when Rangers snatched the lead on 34 minutes.
From the left channel, Sterling clipped the ball in and Fernandez rose to glance a header past Hibs keeper Raphael Sallinger.
It felt like an act of grand larceny given how poor Rangers had been. The midfield was non-existent and Hibs continued to pour forward.
Apart from scoring the goal, Fernandez was having a shocker. Kieron Bowie rolled him with embarrassing ease shortly before half-time.
When Fernandez subsequently rugby tackled the Hibs striker to the floor, he went straight into referee Don Robertson’s notebook and was booked.
It was scarcely believable that Rangers went in 1-0 ahead at half-time. Hibs were the better side in possession, but had been incredibly wasteful in the final third.
Barron was having a good game breaking up play and trying to drive his team forward. So, too, was Moore as the sole bright spark in attack for the home side.
But they were still all over the shop in defence. At one point, Fernandez was doing Cruyff turns and then trying to beat two or three men, only for his blushes to be spared by a foul.
The second half turned into a scrap as both teams toiled to create anything clear-cut. Knowing how fragile a one-goal lead can be, the Ibrox crowd were still a nervous wreck.
So often a thorn in Rangers’ side over the years, Martin Boyle was finally summoned from the Hibs bench with just over 20 minutes to play.
Rangers finally managed to fashion a good chance when Mohamed Diomande played a neat through ball into the path of substitute Djeidi Gassama.
Gassama slotted the ball low into the net, only for the flag to be raised for offside. In keeping with the atmosphere throughout the night, the game entered a nervy final 10 minutes.
In the end, Rangers held on. But they made incredibly heavy weather of it. Rohl will demand a major improvement at the weekend.
But with events across Glasgow continuing to plumb new depths, it’s hard not to feel like Hearts are looking better and better with each passing week.
Rangers (3-4-2-1): Butland 7; Sterling 7 (Tavernier 60), Djiga 5, Fernandez 6; Aarons 5 (Nsiala 60), Barron 7.5 (Raskin 76), Diomande 6.5, Meghoma 6; Moore 7 (Aasgaard 69), Curtis 5 (Gassama 69); Chermiti 5. Booked: Fernandez.
Hibernian (3-5-2): Sallinger 5; O’Hora 6, Hanley 6.5, Iredale 6 (Hoilett 76); C Cadden 6 (Boyle, McGrath 6 (Newell 57), Barlaser 6 (Chaiwa 57), Mulligan 6, Obita 6; Youan 6 (Klidje, Bowie 7. Booked: McGrath, Youan, Iredale.
Referee: Don Robertson.
Attendance: 50,226.
