ALLY McCoist added just one player to his squad last month due to financial ills which have now pushed Rangers to the edge of the abyss.

And even that solitary acquisition, Swedish Under-21 cap Mervan Celik, did precious little, if anything, to strengthen his resources. Yet, McCoist can always rely on a 12th man, one who is available every week for free, to assist the on and off-field fortunes of the Ibrox club.

To say the Light Blues faithful has rallied around their club in the darkest hour in its 140-year history is an understatement. The red, white and blue-clad hordes flocked to the Govan home of their heroes in huge numbers at the weekend in a very public display of their undying support.

The crowd of 50,268 was the club's highest home attendance of the campaign, even beating the turnout for the Old Firm game back in September.

Young and old, male and female, lifelong season ticket holder and occasional attendee; they all united as one to show the world they will stand shoulder to shoulder with their club in its time of need.

"We don't do walking away," declared Rangers legend McCoist last week after the club was plunged dramatically into administration. Too true. The size and volume of the crowd for the Kilmarnock game on Saturday highlighted that Gers supporters will meet the crisis engulfing the Glasgow giants head on.

Heck, even the visiting manager, Kenny Shiels, was taken aback. He said: "The Rangers fans came out to show solidarity. They were absolutely magnificent."

That the reigning champions lost 1-0 to their Ayrshire opponents was, for a change, an irrelevance. The threat of closure has a tendency to make losing three points insignificant.

Anyway, having been docked 10 points on Tuesday to fall 14 points behind Celtic at the top of the SPL table, their chances of a fourth consecutive league success became virtually non-existent.

No amount of vocal backing could compensate for the stark fact that this Rangers squad has been starved of much-needed investment by those in charge at Ibrox for far too long.

The home team started their latest SPL outing with 5ft 8ins 32-year-old hitman David Healy playing up front by himself in attack. No disrespect to the Northern Irishman, a proven and prolific marksman at the highest level, but that could possibly be as weak a forward line as Rangers can ever have fielded on their own turf.

Yes, the likes of Carlos Bocanegra, Steven Davis, Maurice Edu, Dorin Goian and Allan McGregor, fine players and established internationalists all, were in McCoist's starting line-up. There is a flatness, though, in much of that group's play these days. It is the collective malaise of a group of who too much has been asked to go to the well too many times.

The need for freshness is glaring. In addition, the Rangers bench, so often an indication of a side's strength, comprised Celik, Gregg Wylde, Salim Kerkar, Ross Perry and Rhys McCabe.

Who out of that ragtag bunch could come on and turn the match if, as turned out to be the case, things did not go well? What Plan B could the manager possibly resort to if he needed a change of approach with those players as back-up?

It was impossible not to feel a degree of sympathy for McCoist as he threw on first Perry for the sickly Goian in the first half and then Celik and Kerkar for Healy and Kirk Broadfoot respectively.

Perry has a bright future ahead of him and once again performed with great maturity during his time on the park. But he is too young to playing centre-half for such a massive club on a regular basis. The jury is out on Celik while Kerkar was signed for a nominal fee to make up numbers after failing to win a deal at Motherwell.

The red-carding of Sasa Papac for a rash high tackle on Liam Kelly just before half-time was the last thing the beleaguered manager needed. The Bosnian should have known far, far better.

Then, just when McCoist thought things could not possibly get any worse for his team, referee Iain Brines decided to chalk off what appeared to be a perfectly legitimate Lee McCulloch goal.

But take nothing away from Shiels, whose son Dean scored the only goal, and his Kilmarnock team. When they are in the mood they are a match for any team in the country.

They compete, too, playing with a fair amount of flair. This was their second win over Rangers this term. Richly deserved it was as well. A 1-0 loss to a team like Kilmarnock would normally be greeted with disgust by Rangers. The full-time whistle would invariably be heard by a half-deserted stadium.

That so many stayed to the bitter end to sing, applaud and cheer on an afternoon full of raw emotion showed there is some way to go before Rangers Football Club loses its fight for survival.

The unfortunate choice of songs from the home fans was the one black spot on the day and it will be interesting to see if, given the Scottish government's new anti-sectarian legislation, the SPL take any action.