At Ibrox first-half goals from Liam Miller and John Rankin, followed by a late strike from Francis Dickoh, was enough to give Colin Calderwood his first win as Hibs boss and the Light Blues paid the price for a sub standard display before the break.
If being two goals down was not bad enough the opening 45 minutes also saw Mo Edu and Sasa Papac stretchered off with what looked to be nasty injuries.
In his pre-match interviews Walter Smith voiced his concern that his side could lose their edge during this hectic period of fixtures and again he had to call upon the same group of players to produce the goods this evening.
Kyle Lafferty forced his way back in to the team having impressed in his side’s 3-1 victory at New St. Mirren Park on Sunday.
The Northern Ireland star joined Kenny Miller in attack with Vladimir Weiss on the bench.
Elsewhere there were no surprises with Steven Whittaker, David Weir, Madjid Bougherra and Sasa Papac in front of Allan McGregor.
In midfield the two Stevens, Davis and Naismith, occupied the right and left flanks respectively with Lee McCulloch and Mo Edu in the engine room.
Despite the final scoreline Rangers started the match well and from Stevie O’Reilly’s first whistle they went straight for the jugular.
Pressure from Lafferty resulted in the first corner being awarded within 60 seconds and when the ball was cleared from Steven Davis’ cross a bullet shot from Naismith was tipped over the bar by Mark Brown.
Miller then found space between Sol Bamba and Francis Dickoh but on receiving a clever pass from Davis the Govan Stand linesman was quick to raise his flag.
On five minutes the game was turned on its head when Hibs took the lead with their first effort on goal.
Liam Miller picked the ball up 30 yards out and he tried his luck with a low, speculative effort.
The dip, power and swerve seemed to surprise McGregor who was left flapping at thin air as the net rippled behind him.
It was the perfect case of ‘if you don’t buy a ticket, you don’t win the raffle’ and even Miller looked surprised at giving his side the lead.
Rangers could have got back in to the game just two minutes later; Bougherra crossing to Lafferty but the Gers’ no. 11 failed to get enough purchase on the ball and it whizzed wide of target.
Hibs, however, were buzzing and on 12 minutes they could have doubled their advantage when a deflected cross came in from the left wing and McGregor did brilliantly to deny the energetic David Wotherspoon with a point blank stop.
It was proving to be a nervy start for the Ibrox faithful who were left gobsmacked when Hibs scored a stunning second on 15 minutes.
John Rankin skipped past Bougherra and the midfielder curled a delightful right foot shot beyond the helpless McGregor from 20 yards.
It was a fantastic effort from the Hibs man but again Rangers’ defending was uncharacteristically slack.
The home side now had no option but to throw men forward and Lafferty was denied by Brown after good play from Bougherra down the right.
Weir then rose to meet a corner but the ball flicked off the head of Dickoh and on to the post before being cleared.
Nothing was going Rangers’ way and when a netbound volley from Bougherra beat Brown but was nervously cleared on the line you got the impression this was going to be one of those nights.
Remarkably things went from bad to worse before the interval with Mo Edu stretchered off after an innocuous challenge.
And Papac was then carried off after a sickening clash of heads with Lithuanian forward Valdas Trakys who was able to return to the action.
With Kirk Broadfoot on Rangers did have one chance to get a goal. Weiss, who had replaced Edu, delivered a teasing cross from the left but Miller’s near post flick was saved well by Brown.
With news filtering through that Celtic were losing 2-0 at Tynecastle and down to ten men the Rangers fans lifted the roof when the team reappeared from tunnel and immediately there was more urgency in their play.
On 48 minutes Weiss passed the ball inside to McCulloch who had made a darting run in to the 18 yard box.
Jig drilled a first time shot towards goal but Brown, who was in inspired form, made a fantastic stop with his right arm.
Weir then had another header from a corner cleared off the line just when it looked as though it was going to creep in.
With Rangers pushing men forward gaps were going to appear at the back and with 16 minutes left McGregor showed his class with a stunning fingertip stop from a Rankin thunderbolt from distance.
From the resulting corner Rangers were again punished when Dickoh made the most of poor marking to fire the ball in to the roof of the net from eight yards to send the travelling support in to ecstasy.
Few within Ibrox would say that the visitors didn’t deserve all three points this evening but the Rangers players struggled to get out of first gear against a side that looked sharper throughout the 90 minutes.
With Edu and Papac now serious doubts for Aberdeen’s visit to Ibrox on Saturday Walter Smith’s squad is stretched but there is no doubt they will need to play a lot better if they are going to get back to winning ways this weekend.