They Fink it's all over and it's no laughing matter for Russ at Gers

One gaffer saved his job at Ibrox – and it was Genk's

- BY DAVID MCCARTHY

A MANAGER might just have saved his job at Ibrox last night. Unfortunately for Russell Martin, it was the guy in the other dugout.

Make no mistake, Genk's Thorsten Fink was in big bother arriving in Govan with his team sitting third bottom of the Belgian league.

And while leaving with three points in this Europa League opener might have thrown Fink a lifeline, Martin continues to look like a dead manager walking.

His Rangers players worked for him last night, without doubt, but the self-destruction that has plagued their season continued, to the dismay of their disillusioned support, who reacted furiously at full-time. Again.

This time it was Mo Diomande shooting them in the foot with a stupid studs-up lunge that left Rangers a man down five minutes before the break.

That came after they thought they'd won a penalty, only for Slovenia ref Matej Jug to rule it out for a push by James Tavernier.

And even when Jack Butland produced a rare moment of elation by saving Oh Hyun-Gyu's spot-kick, awarded after a lengthy VAR check on a Tavernier tackle, the former Celtic striker had the last laugh.

In truth, Oh could have had four or five on the night. But one always looked like being enough as this depleted Rangers - Djiedi Gassama apart - looked incapable of hurting the Belgian back line.

Having earned a little bit of breathing space with the cup win over Hibs at the weekend, Martin made only one change to his starting lineup. But it was an eyebrow-raiser with Youssef Chermiti coming in at the expense of Bojan Miovski up front.