RANGERS heroes John Brown and Nacho Novo joined thousands of fans at Ibrox to protest against the under-fire board last night.

The Light Blue legions gathered at the front doors before the Championship fixture with Hibs, which Kenny McDowall's side lost 2-0 to drop to third place in the table behind leaders Hearts and the Easter Road outfit.

With the make-or-break EGM scheduled for Wednesday, March 4, the promotion six-pointer looks like being the final home game Rangers will play before shareholders vote to determine the club's future.

The board announced earlier this week that they are seeking a new venue for the meeting, at which Dave King, Paul Murray and John Gilligan hope to seize control, after the Millennium Hotel in London pulled the plug on next month's booking.

Another day passed without a fresh location being announced, however, with the Gers hierarchy under pressure to finally confirm where investors will meet for the crunch vote.

They have been repeatedly blasted for opting to stage the shareholder summit in the Capital rather than at Ibrox, with small stakeholders being urged to proxy their votes.

The Hibs clash was preceded by a large-scale demonstration outside the stadium as furious fans aimed chants at Sandy and James Easdale and controversial powerbroker Mike Ashley.

The protest continued inside the ground, with chants of 'sack the board' once again directed at those in the control of the club.

On Thursday night, Murray and Gilligan met with members of Rangers First, who saw former Ibrox winger Vladimir Weiss become the latest high-profile member to join their ranks yesterday.

And the former Light Blues director hopes change is near as he looks to remove David Somers, Derek Llambias, James Easdale and Barry Leach from power.

Murray said: "We are confident, as Dave King said last week. We have looked at the shareholder listing. We are not complacent, but we are confident.

"I think any fair-minded shareholder who has got an investment in the club can see the club is completely disengaged from its customers, the fans.

"It is unsustainable, it can't continue and there has to be change. We are very confident that the shareholders will recognise that and vote the right way.

"Having said that, every vote is important and we would encourage every person to vote in plenty of time so that, hopefully, we can get a successful outcome as quickly as possible."

If the King alliance is to be successful next month, the backing of fans is likely to prove crucial in gaining a majority backing from shareholders.

And the Rangers Supporters' Trust last night announced they had increased their stake in RIFC plc to 1.56%.

The Trust have purchased a further 125,000 shares, while 150,000 have been handed over by fans in exchange for life membership, giving the RST a total of more than 1.2million shares.