It was achieved with a team packed full of kids due to no fewer than five influential senior players being out injured.
And it safely secured Rangers a place in the next round of a cup competition they would dearly love to triumph in.
Yet, the narrow 1-0 victory over tiny Forres Mechanics in the William Hill Scottish Cup on Saturday was still far from satisfactory.
In fact, in the wake of embarrassments on the road in Brechin, Peterhead, Berwick and Annan, it was deeply troubling. The reaction of Ally McCoist to the win at Mosset Park showed just how alarming a display it had been.
"The manager gave us a right rollicking," admitted keeper Neil Alexander, one of the few Rangers players to receive a pass mark.
It had been hoped by the Ibrox boss that an outstanding performance and remarkable 2-0 win over Motherwell in the Scottish Communities League Cup at Ibrox last week would be a turning point in what had, up until then, been a fraught campaign.
However, just three days after beating the then SPL leaders they laboured to defeat a Highland League side who were reduced to 10 men early on in the second half.
Yes, it was a win. But the overall showing of his team against Forres was every bit as concerning for the Rangers manager as it had been at Glebe Park, Balmoor, Shielfield and Galabank.
His side were up against a team of part-timers who receive £20 a week and £20 if they win a game. It is fairly safe to say The Can Cans will not find themselves the subject of an EBT investigation any time soon.
Rangers continue to toil badly on their travels. Unless the issue is addressed and the problems eradicated, then the Glasgow giants will suffer the ignominy of defeat to one of this country's minnows in the near future.
Only a superb reaction save by Alexander from a Kyle Scott header in the second half maintained the slender lead which was earned through a Kal Naismith goal – his first for Rangers.
It is not being too fanciful to suggest Rangers could even struggle to get out of the Irn-Bru Third Division in the 2012/13 campaign if they do not start producing the goods away from home soon.
It is a failing in his team McCoist and his coaching staff have agonised over long and hard in recent weeks and one to which there appears no simple solution.
He said: "There are positives to take out of the Forres game. We are in the next round at least and that was our intention. But it was not very good at all and I was deeply disappointed.
"It is difficult to put your finger on what the problem is. The home performances bear no comparison to our away performances.
"We never said there was going to be a quick fix to our problems away from home. It is going to be a long road."
Admirably, McCoist will not use the youth and inexperience of his team – despite Fraser Aird, Robbie Crawford, Kyle Hutton, Lewis MacLeod, Ross Perry and Naismith all being involved against Forres – as an excuse.
"We should be playing far better than we did against Forres even with our young boys," he argued after being forced to field a team without Ian Black, Andy Little, Fran Sandaza, Dean Shiels and also David Templeton.
"I was very disappointed with the way we played and how we passed the ball."
Forres Mechanics can be proud of how they performed and will consider themselves unlucky not to at least have earned a replay at Ibrox.
FORRES manager Charlie Rowley said: "We were very down in the dressing room after the game
"We gave our absolute all. In the last half hour, when we were down to 10 men, we were in the ascendency. Rangers were playing with one man up front. That tells its own story.
"Our players left the ground on Saturday with their heads held extremely high."
The Rangers players should be relieved to have escaped with a win from the North they scarcely deserved.
They will have to work tirelessly in the coming days to ensure there is a vast improvement in their Third Division meeting with Stirling Albion at Forthbank on Saturday.
