At last there's something to smile about Positives for McLeish, but Gough is left to scratch his head

An unsightly defeat was made all the more galling for Richard Gough on his return to Ibrox, the scene of such rich glory, by a defence so dysfunctional and dilapidated it made a past master of the art cringe with embarrassment.

According to popular wisdom, this was the meeting of two sides bound by the commonality of crisis, albeit in starkly contrasting guises.

Alex McLeish has been understandably subdued since a seemingly well-engineered attempt to prise Barry Ferguson from Blackburn Rovers hit the buffers over a pounds-2m valuation differential.

Worse still, one of the few remaining talismans, Stefan Klos, was given a harsh reminder of his fallibility when a seemingly innocuous training injury was diagnosed as anterior cruciate ligament damage.

Inspiration was duly offered by Sotirios Kyrgiakos, the Greek defender recruited on an initial loan deal to alleviate the profound loss of Jean-Alain Boumsong to Newcastle United.

The Greece internationalist made an impressive debut.

With a long dark mane, colossal physical presence and predebut publicity revealing him to have been a clothes horse for Giorgio Armani in his homeland, the Rangers fans may well have witnessed the arrival of the new Lorenzo Amoruso.

On Saturday's evidence, Soto - as he has been nicknamed by his new team-mates - appears to possess few of the Italian's eccentricities. Marvin Andrews has, of course, inherited that mantle. Not for the first time this season, a rather gruff-sounding McLeish conceded that Rangers were far from aesthetically pleasing.

Dado Prso is not quite the Phantom of the Opera but the Croat's impressive array of war wounds are a rival for those of his grizzled manager.

"I have more scars than goals this season, " he joked, (the tally is 16 and 13 respectively). That kind of fearlessness has won over the majority of fans and even the remaining sceptics cannot question his commitment.

"If you are not ready to fight, you can go home. I enjoy that kind of football and I think Soto will, too. He did a really good job today and will be a good signing for Rangers, " he said.

The new man showed all the attributes of an accomplished defender. He was commanding at the back, to Derek Lilley's frustration; dangerous at set-pieces, as proven with a header cleared off the line; and adept with the ball. It was his lofted pass which provided Prso with the opening goal.

The other new faces were not nearly as prominent. Bojan Djordjic lasted 28 minutes before reluctantly trudging off with a groin injury. Thomas Buffel is another story. The diminutive Belgian forward spent the afternoon looking skyward as a diseased Ibrox surface meant the ball was rarely on the ground.

It appears no-one has quite fathomed how to maximise Buffel's undoubted ability.

Without a calming influence in midfield - like Ferguson, dare it be said - Rangers' hurried style does not suit a player of such subtlety and nor does their ugly, pock-marked pitch.

Livingston's meek resistance lasted eight minutes and the inevitable breakthrough underlined the alarming decline of Oscar Rubio. The Spaniard arrived in Scotland without pace but has since been stripped of conviction, confidence and composure.

Frankly, if Gough persists with the partnership of Rubio and Emmanuel Dorado, he will be back in San Diego on permanent vacation come May.

Kyrgiakos's right-foot chip sailed over the stranded Rubio and, with time to select his spot, Prso slotted the ball comfortably beyond Roddy McKenzie. The goalkeeper thwarted another similar attempt when Andrews' long ball was inadequately dealt with by Rubio, enabling Nacho Novo to scamper clear.

Not to be outdone, Dorado dunted Novo outside the penalty area and watched in horror as Fernando Ricksen emulated his feat against Aberdeen earlier in the season with a sublime free-kick into the top right-hand corner of the net. Novo completed the scoring by redirecting Buffel's skewed shot and Allan McGregor completed a competent display deputising for Klos with an acrobatic stop from Lilley.

"We defended badly but it is hard to get anyone else in . . .

even average defenders are going for pounds-8m, " said Gough in a jocular reference to Boumsong's sale. Competence, he has quickly discovered, is a rare commodity at the blunt end of the business.