Expectations at Ibrox were only half-met. Rangers did progress to the second preliminary round on half-throttle, but not by the anticipated landslide. It was not until the 90th minute that Jonaton Johansson completed a double with a close-range shot which gave the scoreline a more convincing look.
Shelbourne may have attracted the smallest visiting support ever seen at Ibrox - the old Iron Curtain teams excepted - with about 30 fans in a tiny corner of a stand that can accommodate 7,500. But even a following 100 times larger could not have given the team sufficient wind to achieve a mission that looked impossible after only five minutes, when Rangers scored and took their aggregate lead to 6-3.
The Ibrox side's superiority thereafter bordered on the tedious but it gave the home fans an opportunity to scrutinise the debutants, Andrei Kanchelskis and Arthur Numan.
Nobody expected miracles from players who lack fitness, but Kanchelskis made a quick contribution by setting up that early goal. Taking possession on the right, he delivered the ideal cut-back to Johansson and the Finn drilled his shot from 12 yards low to the right of Alan Gough. Kanchelskis then put a cross over for Jorg Albertz, whose header skimmed the bar.
Numan, who arrived only on Tuesday from his post-World Cup break, may need practice but he still managed to look a quality act.
In the second half the match had all the atmosphere of a closed-doors trial, the general boredom relieved only by the occasional thundering drive from Albertz and, on one occasion, a low drive from Sergio Porrini that whistled wide.
Dick Advocaat, Rangers' coach, had warned that many of his players were still markedly short of the required fitness levels and his assessment looked spot-on.
There seemed to be a difference in ambition between the teams, though, as Shelbourne, with Tony McCarthy and Pat Scully stout in defence and Pat Fenlon, Mark Rutherford, Pat Morley and Liam Kelly busy up forward, battled spiritedly to preserve a single-goal scoreline that they could have considered a moral triumph.
Rangers: Niemi, Porrini, Moore, Amoruso, Numan, Kanchelskis (Amato 45), B. Ferguson, Van Bronckhorst (I. Ferguson 74), Albertz, Durie (Gat tuso 62), Johansson. Subs Not Used: Brown, Thern, Petric, Graham. Booked: Amoruso. Goals: Johansson 4, 89.
Shelbourne: Gough, Geoghegan, McCart ney, Scully, D. Baker, Rutherford, Smith, Fenlon, Fitzgerald, Morley (Sheridan 67), Kelly. Subs Not Used: O'Brien, Neville, Gifford, Byrne, R. Baker, Campbell.
Referee: M Milewski (Poland).
