ALLY McCOIST shared a dressing room with some of the finest players ever to pull on the famous Light Blue jersey during his illustrious Rangers career.

Now, as he looks around and sees the pegs where Richard Gough, Paul Gascoigne, Davie Cooper and Brian Laudrup used to hang their suits on a matchday before turning on the style on the pitch, the shirts of a very different team are now found at Ibrox.

However, while the names may have changed, the expectations remain as high as ever.

There will, of course, be a degree of understanding at the predicament the manager finds himself in and the quality of player that currently takes to the field, but standards must be maintained at Ibrox.

For much of the campaign, particularly away from home, those levels have not been met, even though Rangers have accumulated enough points to take them to the top of the Irn-Bru Third Division.

Saturday, therefore was much more like it, with the 7-0 victory over Alloa the kind of performance – and result – that is expected on a weekly basis as Lee McCulloch, Dean Shiels and Barrie McKay all netted doubles against the Wasps, with Robbie Crawford capping a decent substitute showing with a goal.

It was a show of dominance from McCoist's side, with them not content simply to win, but seemingly determined to do so with panache.

They were keen to hammer home their superiority in the way legendary sides of the past used to.

Those that are currently trusted with a starting jersey on a weekly basis are unlikely to be held in the same regard as McCoist or his former team-mates in the years to come, but they still have the chance to write themselves into the Ibrox history books.

It is the Third Division and not the cup competitions where Rangers must make their mark this season, but Saturday's comfortable rout is still welcome as it provides a source of relief for the Light Blues squad.

Having already exited the Ramsdens Cup and Scottish Communities League Cup – to Queen of the South and Inverness Caledonian Thistle respectively – at Ibrox this term, the visit of Paul Hartley's side had all the hallmarks of another potential source of embarrassment for Rangers, who have a poor record in knock-out action on McCoist's watch.

Instead of slumping to another defeat which would have piled more pressure on the manager's shoulders, the Gers finally put in the kind of showing that is expected of them, with each goal a signal of their strength as they put a disastrous midweek showing behind them in emphatic fashion.

"I was disappointed with the second-half performance on Wednesday night, and it should be noted that they [Inverness] had a good result again [on Saturday]," said McCoist.

"You just ask the players to take responsibility and believe in themselves a bit, try and have a killer instinct and go and want to score goals and be ruthless.

"I felt once we got the fourth goal, we showed a streak that we haven't seen before, which was pleasing, and that was a desire to go and score more goals."

It may have taken until the closing stages for Rangers to add the shine to the scoreline – four of the goals came in the last 18 minutes – that their performance deserved, but it was in the opening 35 minutes that the hard work was done and their place in this afternoon's fourth-round draw confirmed as Shiels, twice, and McCulloch, both found the target to put the tie beyond Alloa.

In the second half, the skipper converted his strike partner's selfless cutback and Crawford finished with aplomb from close range. But it was the youngster, McKay, who stole the show late on, firing in a superb strike from distance before completing the rout with a well-taken second in the dying minutes.

It all added up to a pleasing afternoon for Rangers, with the performances of starlets Chris Hegarty, in an unfamiliar left-back role, and midfield ace Lewis Macleod again a source of encouragement for McCoist.

He is building for the future while attempting to bring the immediate success he knows is vital not only for the club, but for his long-term future in the dugout.

The Rangers manager has already admitted that nothing less than the Irn-Bru Third Division title will do this season as the Light Blue revolution looks to get off and running and they set their sights on the top of our game once again.

It is a level that the current crop may not be able to compete at yet, but the pressure remains firmly on as McCoist and his players attempt to live up to the expectation in their current surroundings.