Scottish Football: Just what is up with Rangers?

Ally McCoist has cut a dejected figure at times this season
Rangers' shock Ramsdens Cup exit at home to Second Division side Queen of the South is the latest disappointment in a tricky start to the Gers campaign...
When Rangers were forced to drop down to the Scottish Third Division most quickly calculated that the period of exile would be bearably brief.
It was all ok because three successive promotions would see them safely back in the SPL for the start of the 2015/16 season.
However, three away draws in the league and a cup exit may just have altered the aspirational trajectory supporters ever so slightly.
The Glasgow outfit have now slipped from nailed on 1.021/50 champions to 1.081/12 to go up as Third Division winners.
The warning signs for the seven-time Scottish treble winners were evident in their very first game though, when a point against Peterhead was only rescued through a 90th-minute equaliser.
Rangers have clearly been caught off-guard as they acclimatise to their humble surroundings and two more draws away from home have left Gers forums filled with questions over what has caused these disconcerting results.
After all, this is a squad which retained many of the group which finished last season as the second best team in the country, including players like Neil Alexander, Lee Wallace, Lee McCulloch and Andrew Little and added SPL-worthy talent like Ian Black, David Templeton and Francisco Sandaza.
One idea being bandied around is that a lack of motivation may have crept into these players who are so used to playing in front of packed houses and against famous opposition.
Now, instead of running out against Celtic or Aberdeen, they find themselves asked to put in the same efforts against the likes of Annan Athletic and Berwick in front of a few thousand instead of tens of thousands. And of course to borrow a painfully overused cliche, every game against the Gers for these sides is like a cup final.
Even Celtic appear to be suffering from a post-Rangers motivational malaise in the SPL after following up draws against Ross County and Hibernian with a shock defeat away at St Johnstone.
This does seem strange when Neil Lennon's men have clearly been able to get themselves up for Champions League ties, with the Hoops priced at a good-looking 3.711/4 to get going with a win at home to Benfica in Group G.
Whatever it is affecting Rangers, many more results like the one last night and McCoist may just find himself swapping the bench in the dugout for the pundits' sofa much sooner than he'd like.