The scoreline doesn’t always tell the whole story.
At face value Arbroath took a heavy beating at Ibrox, and Rangers did win comfortably in the end.
But for more than half of the game Red Lichties’ fans were holding on to realistic dreams of a first success at Ibrox since John Fletcher grabbed the decisive goal in a 3-2 victory almost 40 years ago.
Rangers boss Ally McCoist was quick to admit his side were flattered by the final score, and praised the visitors’ performance.
“It was a great win because I don’t think anyone would have predicted that score at half-time,” McCoist said.
“They did very well and I’ve no doubt that their team and their manager will be disappointed.
“For long periods of time they knocked the ball around very well, and they got behind us a few times. They are a good side.”
Lichties manager Paul Sheerin was encouraged by his team’s performance for much of the game, but took a pragmatic view of the outcome.
He said: “You could say it’s unlucky or it’s harsh, but at the end of the day it’s 5-1.
“Effort-wise we’ve done well and we’ve competed for a certain amount of time but the bottom line is we haven’t competed for 90 minutes, and that’s what you need to do.
“You can’t come to places like this and go gung-ho. I learned that early in the job.
“All we tried to do was frustrate them for as long as possible, which to a certain degree we did.
“Once they got their first goal the momentum changed and the third goal killed us,” he said. “Then we changed our shape to try to get something back and that just invited extra pressure.”
Arbroath held their own in an entertaining opening 45 minutes during which Lee Erwin was twice within inches of finishing off dangerous low crosses in the home six-yard box.
It was expected that Rangers would increase the tempo in the second period but it was the visitors who stunned the home side two minutes after the break with a wonderful goal from Alan Cook.
Erwin cut the ball back into the danger area where Cook looked up, spotted Cammy Bell off his line, and guided a chip over the keeper and into the net.
Rangers looked rattled and shortly afterwards Sheerin came close with a header from a Cook corner.
But McCoist’s men went on the offensive and French-Tunisian centre-back Bilal Mohsni, impressive throughout his league debut, scored the equaliser in the 57th minute.
Rangers continued to press and a great run from David Templeton ended with the substitute firing narrowly over the bar.
A few minutes later Lee McCulloch edged the Light Blues in front with a powerful header. Arbroath claimed the Rangers man had fouled defender Michael Travis but referee Crawford Allan disagreed.
McCulloch was on the mark again in the 75th minute with a 30-yard shot which left keeper Scott Morrison helpless.
Ross Chisholm opened up an opportunity for Lee Sibanda to reduce the leeway four minutes from the end with a wonderful cross to the back post, but the Lichties substitute fired wildly over the top.
Andy Little, who had caused the Arbroath rearguard no end of problems throughout the afternoon, latched on to a Templeton through ball to slot home Rangers’ fourth in the 89th minute.
McCulloch completed his hat-trick with another header in the dying seconds.