KRIS BOYD held up six fingers in a symbolic gesture of support for his former skipper, after slotting home the goal that saw Rangers scrape to a 1-0 win at Motherwell.

How ironic that the player closest to jettisoned Ibrox captain Barry Ferguson - and the man so often chided by Paul Le Guen for not doing enough - should hit the goal that let the Frenchman take a step back from the gallows. For now, anyway.

The game was something of a sideshow amid Ferguson's fall-out, but Boyd's 69th minute penalty at Fir Park took Rangers back to second place and at least gave their troubled support a victory, on what must have been one of the strangest days in the club's history.

Back in July, Le Guen and his charges had rolled up at Fir Park for the first competitive game of his new era.

Lauded by the club's fans as the messiah, he oversaw a 2-1 opening day win with a brand of flowing football that had supporters purring. Now, here he was before the game, booed by 100 or so of his own disgruntled fans who had congregated outside the front door to meet the team bus.

Inside the ground, a couple of banners were held up behind either goal asking for him to go.

And the fans packed behind each goal burst into chants all afternoon in support of the man he had just stripped of the captaincy and axed from his squad.

Le Guen tried to keep his head above water. And thankfully his players tossed him a lifeline with a win, even though it still appears that the former Lyon man could go under at any time.

No matter the outcome of the Ferguson row, and it now appears the midfielder will never play again for Rangers as long as Le Guen is at the helm, Rangers need results.

There is a bigger picture out there, the battle for the runners-up spot and potential access to the Champions League, and this grafted win turned out to be a decent day's work, with Hibs and Aberdeen drawing 0-0.

That allowed Rangers to leapfrog the Dons and now Le Guen will be hoping that his squad can put to one side all the furore that is swirling around over the future of the club's captain and best player, and replicate the kind of effort and desire they displayed in Lanarkshire.

Granted, Rangers had little in the way of quality. Indeed, there appeared to be a touch of fortune about their penalty award from Mike McCurry, Dado Prso using all his nous to tease Graeme Smith into a challenge that saw him go down and get the call.

But over the piece Rangers showed commendable desire and certain players, most notably Allan McGregor, Jeremy Clement and Alan Hutton, played with an insatiable desire to get the win.

Disrupted by the early loss of Libor Sionko, chopped down by a scandalous Jim Paterson tackle that for some reason never even brought yellow from a weak McCurry, Rangers had the better chances towards the end of the first half, but were poor in front of goal on two or three occasions.

Motherwell had produced fine work against Celtic last weekend, and we waited for them to hit those heights again. Their football had been neat and tidy in the first period, but there was little in the way of incisiveness.

That was to change in the second half, as McGregor produced brilliant stops from Scott McDonald to keep the scoreline at 0-0.

And then the vital penalty came. Boyd smacked it into the net and Rangers had the lead.

Motherwell were bound to come biting back, and a game that had bubbled underneath the surface then exploded in the 73rd minute.

McGregor's goal was again peppered, and the loose ball appeared to be bundling over the line after he had made another block.

Clement tried to hack it clear, but bodies piled in and Marc Fitzpatrick appeared to kick McGregor on the head. Players from both sides steamed in and punches were thrown.

It was hard for McCurry to see what had gone on. But Fitzpatrick and Prso saw red, with others maybe fortunate not to follow.

All unnecessary, but it was one of those days. An amazing afternoon, really, which saw a Rangers manager booed in and out of a stadium by a section of his own support, but a team that at least proved that the club matters to them.

It appears, though, the captain has paid a heavy price for having the very same belief.