Dark clouds form over Derek McInnes' Rangers as VAR set low bar on historic day for Hibs

Any sense of anticipation over the 54-year-old rejuvenating this club dissipated when Hibs substitute Callum Wright's effort trundled into the net three minutes into stoppage time. This 2-1 win is big for Hibs but for Rangers, they are already five points adrift of Premiership leaders and defending champions Celtic.

Nothing is decided after two matches, of course not. There are 36 still to play but Rangers are playing catch-up with their title rivals. We have seen this movie before.

McInnes has now been in post for just under two months and with nine new signings through the door, the turnaround will take time. But as the experienced manager knows all too well, the clock ticks faster at Ibrox than most places. Drawing 1-1 at Dundee United on opening night wasn't a disaster, but losing this one felt more like it.

On the balance of play, Rangers did deserve something from this. They conceded an early goal via a penalty when VAR pinged Vanja Dragojevic for holding Jason Kerr in the box. They dominated the game thereafter and while Hibs defended manfully, blocking all manner of efforts, there was a glaring lack of invention from the hosts. Their leveller on 85 minutes came via a Hibs player, with the unfortunate Miguel Chaiwa putting through his own net.

There was time for Rangers to push on a get the winner. The sliding doors moment came when, on 90+2 minutes, Raphael Sallinger made a smart save with his feet to stop a Djeidi Gassama effort. Less than 60 seconds later, Hibs scored when the ball was artfully moved up the pitch and Wright's strike took a slight but decisive deflection off Tuur Rommens and past Ivan Pandur in the Rangers goal. The home players sank to their knees.

This is the first time McInnes has lost at home to Hibs as a manager. He made six changes to his starting XI from Thursday's 2-1 defeat by Jagiellonia Bialystock in the Europa League and for the third game in a row made a half-time substitution. The manager has yet to determine his most productive unit.

New winger Diasuke Yokota was the bright spark in an otherwise dimly-lit team. The Japanese has some creativity about him, something Rangers glaringly lack in central areas.

Hibs arrived here with some grumblings about head coach David Gray, so this is a big moment for him. For the third year in a row, he has masterminded a victory at Ibrox - something no previous Hibs team has ever achieved. He benefitted from new signing Wright and Jamie McGrath coming off the bench to give his side extra creativity. Gray will have taken great satisfaction from the way his back-four defended.

Rangers will also curse bad luck. The VAR citing of Dragojevic putting his arms around Jason Kerr at a corner kick appeared on the soft side, although the Serbian crucially wasn't watching the ball. Nevertheless, it's a low bar to set for penalties at the start of the season. They also had misfortune when a second-half Lawrence Shankland shot his the underside of Sallinger's arm and struck the bar.

To cap it all off, striker Youssef Chermiti came off with what looked like a serious injury just hours after Rangers had rejected an offer worth £22 million from Galatasaray. He was wheeled off on a stretcher on 36 minutes following an attempt to tackle Josh Mulligan.

Even still, Rangers had enough to get the job done. More than £10m has been spent on the squad. It is a dispiriting start to life at Ibrox for McInnes.