Rangers reaction: Van Bronckhorst's hedges his bets, fringe benefits, class is permanent for one player, player ratings

Those who didn’t feature in Rangers’ victory at Fir Park on Saturday afternoon were just as significant to the storyline as those who were on the pitch.

Giovanni van Bronckhorst was playing the long game as the Ibrox club move into a potentially historic final few weeks of their season.

Having secured an extra day to prepare for the first leg of the Europa League semi-final against RB Leipzig on Thursday night, with the fixture at Motherwell brought forward 24 hours, the Rangers manager also chose to keep plenty in reserve for that momentous assignment in Germany.

Van Bronckhorst made no fewer than eight changes from the starting line-up he sent out at Hampden the previous Sunday for the Scottish Cup semi-final victory over Celtic. Only captain James Tavernier and fellow defenders Connor Goldson and Borna Barisic retained their places.

The bench was loaded with players who will be expected to be key figures against Leipzig, including John Lundstram, Ryan Jack and Ryan Kent who were all unused subs.

It didn’t all go to plan on that front, however, with Calvin Bassey’s day off cancelled when he had to be sent on into central defence after Leon Balogun’s straight red card for a foul on Dean Cornelius inside the opening half hour.

Responding to the latest injury blows which will sideline Kemar Roofe and Aaron Ramsey for at least a fortnight, joining Alfredo Morelos and Ianis Hagi on the absentees’ list, van Bronckhorst had challenged those on the periphery of his squad to ‘step up and show why they are at this club’.

Scott Wright provided exactly the kind of response the Dutchman was seeking. The 24-year-old was making his first start since the Scottish Cup tie against Annan back in February and delivered a highly-motivated,