A new era at Rangers might have begun in the boardroom but it was another painful struggle for the Championship side on the park as they were held to a goalless draw by Cowdenbeath at a blustery Central Park.
Dave King’s consortium, including Paul Murray and John Gilligan, backed by the overwhelming majority of the Light Blues support, wrested control from the old board at an extraordinary general meeting at Ibrox on Friday.
However, the euphoria felt by the Gers support was blown away 24 hours later against a team who had lost 10-0 to Hearts last week.
Returning skipper Lee McCulloch smacked the bar with a header in the closing seconds of the first-half but it was another 90 minutes of torture for the Gers fans in the crowd of 3,344.
The elements and a poor playing surface were mitigating factors, undoubtedly, but King, Murray and Gilligan, watching from the directors’ box, will have been reminded what will be required in resources to the get the Govan club back to the top of Scottish football.
Jimmy Nicholl’s side, after the trauma of Tynecastle, will have been glad with the clean sheet and point but they would have expected a tougher 90 minutes.
McCulloch, Lee Wallace, Marius Zaliukas and Kenny Miller were brought back into the Rangers side by caretaker boss Kenny McDowall for with Sebastien Faure and Bilel Mohsni out and Steven Smith and Andy Murdoch dropping to the bench.
The conditions made any sort of passing game unworkable but it was the visitors who had almost all the efforts on goal in the first-half.
Strikers Nicky Clark and Kris Boyd both had early, wind-assisted shots which missed the target.
Miller then had two efforts, the first drive hitting the side-netting, the second from distance flying a yard over the bar.
A last-gasp tackle by Cowdenbeath defender John Armstrong inside the penalty area denied Boyd before Clark, twice, added to the list of futile Light Blue attempts on goal.
It was in the final seconds of the first-half when the Ibrox side came closest, McCulloch glancing a Nicky Law corner onto the bar but the home side survived.
With the wind mostly behind them in the second half the home side looked more of a threat while Rangers began to struggle to get up the park.
In the 66th minute Boyd and Miller made way for Jon Daly and Dean Shiels respectively as McDowall attempted to shake his side out of their growing lethargy.
Cowdenbeath, however, defended with a degree of comfort and they grew in confidence as the second-half moved into its latter stages.
Daly headed a Lee Wallace cross over the bar as a quite dreadful match entered its final stages before referee Stephen Finnie mercifully called time, leaving the Ibrox club to ponder just how difficult the future might be even under a new regime.