ON their first visit to this stadium last season, Rangers fielded a strikeforce of Egil Ostenstad and Nuno Capucho and toiled on their way to a goalless draw.
Only once, when Craig Easton capitalised on a rare Stefan Klos mistake to reduce the score to 2-1 midway through the second half, was Rangers’ supremacy ever in question.
Alex McLeish and his men can now fully turn their attentions to Wednesday’s CIS Cup tie with Celtic having comfortably extended their recent unbeaten run to 11 games.
In his pre-match briefings, McLeish had insisted that his side were looking no further ahead than today’s game although Alex Rae was handed a late run-out from the bench perhaps with the crunch match with Celtic in mind.
Reluctant to tinker with a starting 11 that had gone unbeaten for almost two months, McLeish’s only changes were to replace the injured Zurab Khizanishvili and Dado Prso with Alan Hutton and Steven Thompson.
After failing to collect a victory on either visit to West Lothian last season, Rangers started brightly as they looked to make amends while simultaneously closing the gap on Celtic to just four points.
The first real chance of the game fell to the visitors after just four minutes – Hamed Namouchi heading Peter Lovenkrands’ cross wide – before a Fernando Ricksen free kick cannoned off Scott McLaughlin in the defensive wall and spun just off target.
Rangers were drawing ever closer to a goal and, from another deep Lovenkrands cross, Nacho Novo nodded a header goalwards only for Roddy McKenzie to parry. Rubio was alert to complete the clearance from off the goal line.
Livingston were operating with nine men behind the ball – Jim Hamilton had the thankless task of lone striker – but their negative tactics would only prevail until the 37th minute when Rangers finally broke their resistance.
Ricksen, controversially booked moments early after what looked like a fair challenge on Richard Brittain, swung in a corner that Jean-Alain Boumsong headed down for Lovenkrands.
The Dane seized on the ball to acrobatically pivot and thunder in a strike that gave McKenzie no chance.
Two minutes on and it could have been 2-0. Marvin Andrews, on his return to his former club, launched a long ball for Thompson to cushion a header into the path of Novo.
The Spaniard raced onto the pass but from a tight angle squeezed his drive wide of goal.
If his finishing had been awry on that occasion then he made no mistake when Rangers’ doubled their lead 10 minutes into the second half.
A mistake by Rubio allowed Namouchi a free run on goal and, although McKenzie did well to parry the midfielder’s shot onto the bar and then over, Livi’s respite would be short-lived.
From the resulting corner, Ricksen flighted in a delivery that found Novo unmarked at the back post and the former Dundee striker duly netted from a matter of yards.
Livingston looked dead and buried by that stage but grabbed a surprise lifeline four minutes later when they netted with their first shot on target.
It was a scrappy goal to concede. David McNamee’s thrown in was flicked on for Gregory Vignal and then missed in the air by Klos under pressure from Burton O’Brien.
When the loose ball then fell for Easton he executed a neat overhead kick into the empty net.
Any thoughts of a Livingston comeback, however, were quickly extinguished when Gers went 3-1 in front.
Ricksen was again the provider with a pinpoint corner and the tireless Thompson rose highest to thump a header past McKenzie in the home goal.
Livingston, to their credit, tried to raise themselves once more and Klos atoned for his earlier error by diving low to his left to turn O’Brien’s shot past the post.
The three points now secure, McLeish re-introduced Rae to first-team action for the inspirational Ricksen while also allowing a late run out for Shota Arveladze.
The Light Blues completed the scoring six minutes from time, Namouchi latching on to Vignal’s pass and slotting a low shot past the unfortunate McKenzie.
LIVINGSTON (4-5-1): 1 McKenzie; 2 McNamee, 4 Rubio, 6 Dorado, 3 Stanic (Boyack 34); 14 McLaughlin, 15 Brittain, 19 Snowdon (Libbra 57), 12 Easton, 10 O’Brien; 9 Hamilton (Lilley 77)
Subs not used: Meldrum, Kernaghan, McMenamin, Snodgrass
Booked: Easton (43)
RANGERS (4-4-2): 1 Klos; 20 Hutton, 4 Boumsong, 5 Andrews, 24 Vignal; 31 Namouchi, 2 Ricksen (A Rae 74), 12 Malcolm, 26 Lovenkrands; 10 Novo (Arveladze 74), 19 Thompson
Subs not used: Smith, Ball, Hughes, Ross, Burke
Booked: Ricksen (31)
Rangers’ Man of the Match: Fernando Ricksen