RANGERS are not going to win the Scottish Premiership this season and Kilmarnock may well have enough about them to stay in the league.

These were the two conclusions which came out of a robust and controversial meeting at Rugby Park which produced a red card, some debatable refereeing decisions and a few songs which belong in another era.

A woeful first-half performance by the Ibrox men exposed all their short-comings. They did improve and earned a point but a draw is not good enough against one of the relegation favourites, who ended the match with ten men. Not if Mark Warburton’s side are to mount a serious challenge to Celtic who they face next.

Kilmarnock are a drifting club with a team which, up until this Friday night match, had struggled. Lee Clark’s men to their credit showed a lot of desire, fight, played some good football and took the lead when Kris Boyd scored his 250th goal in British football.

Also, and it is wearying still to be talking about this, the banned Billy Boys was belted out several times and if the SFA can be bothered about doing anything about it then Rangers will have to answer for this. It’s almost as if the supporters want their club to get into trouble.

It was a not great night for Rangers on the pitch or in the medical room. Before a ball was kicked Clint Hill had to come in for Danny Wilson who injured his calf in the warm-up, and then Joe Dodoo pulled up before quarter of an hour with an ankle injury; he had landed heavily on it during the early exchanges.

This, however, allowed latest signing Joe Garner to get on but it’s a new centre-half this team is screaming out for and the Philippe Senderos deal needs to get done.

From the beginning it became obvious the home side fancied themselves.

Kilmarnock had a decent case for a penalty after six minutes when following a corner the ball broke to Adam Frizzell at the edge of the Rangers box, he took on the shot first time and the ball’s path towards goal was halted by the arm of Hill which was away from his body.

But referee Kevin Clancy was having none of it. The home side were not happy with that but were nearly ahead on 12 minutes when Gary Dicker put his foot through a bouncing ball outside the area and his shot flew past the post.

Garner’s first touch was a volley from a corner which was well over but it was an old Rangers boy who came close to scoring on 16 minutes when Greg Taylor's cross picked out Boyd who put the ball wide from eight yards – a chance he has taken 100 times before.

Kilmarnock were doing okay, Rangers were poor. It made for an interesting contest. It became more intriguing just before the half hour when Kilmarnock took a deserved lead.

The move began deep in the Ayrshire men’s half when centre-half Jonathan Burn cut out a pass from Barrie McKay, he gave the ball to Greg Kiltie who left Joey Barton in his wake as he ate up the yards. His pass to Boyd was excellent, as was the striker's run off Hill, and the finish was superb.

Rangers should have got level on 36 minutes when a well worked one-two between Garner and James Tavernier allowed the right-back clear sight at goal which he missed by some distance.

Warburton's men were much improved after half-time. Only an expertly timed tackle by the impressive Burn on Miller on 51 minutes denied Rangers a goal. Garner went looking for a penalty he was never going to get and McKay wasn’t too far away with a curled shot on 53 minutes.

The equaliser did come on 58 minutes and not without controversy.

Clancy was only a few yards away from a tackle by Dean Hawkshaw on McKay. The Kilmarnock man was hard but seemed to win the ball. Nonetheless a free-kick was awarded to Rangers five yards outside the area.

Tavernier may have his defence frailties but he can sure hit a dead ball and his superb delivery beat goalkeeper Jamie McDonald at this top corner. Then it got worse for Kilmarnock .

Barton had the ball near the touchline, Kilmarnock midfielder Greg Taylor thought he would do something about it and his challenge, both high and late, earned him a straight red.

From then on it was mostly Rangers attacking and Kilmarnock defending. Another fine Tavernier free-kick on 77 minutes was this time well saved by MacDonald.

The Kilmarnock keeper made a great one-handed save to deny McKay with three minutes remaining, then MacDonald pulled off an even better save at his bottom post from the same player.

But it was to end in a draw. One team were far happier about that than the other.