It will not make up for missing out on next month's CIS Insurance Cup final, but Rangers at least managed to heal their wounds by beating their semi-final conquerors Hibs for the fourth time this season.
In what was the third meeting between the clubs in the past six weeks Rangers may also have taken some satisfaction from firing two penalties past goalkeeper Daniel Andersson, whose spot-kick heroics had proved their undoing at Hampden.
The return from a hamstring strain of midfielder Mikel Arteta plus the need to avoid a repeat of last weeks sluggish start at Aberdeen inspired the home side from the outset and within the first minute top scorer Shota Arveladze had turned and shot over from 15 yards.
Arteta and the much criticised Nuno Capucho were next to stretch the visitors defence and it was no surprise to see Rangers go ahead after nine minutes when Arveladze was tripped by Mathias Doumbe and got up to beat Andersson from the spot.
Hibs responded with a deflected long-range drive from Steven Whittaker which keeper Stefan Klos had to push round the post.
Capucho was producing a hard working display to answer his many critics but then showed the frustrating side to his game shortly after half time when he dinked the ball wide with only Andersson to beat.
The same player failed to hit the target with a header following a neat play from Fernando Ricksen and Arteta before Hibs finally showed some badly needed urgency with Alan Reid producing three well-timed runs into the home penalty area.
As the Edinburgh club enjoyed its best spell of the game Ranger promptly killed them off with a second goal created by Capucho and Ricksen and finished emphatically by the right boot of substitute Michael Mols.
Hibees boy wonder Derek Riordan then created a wonderful chance which fellow substitute Stephen Dobbie wasted and their misery was complete seven minutes from time when Roland Edge fouled Ricksen and another substitute Steven Thompson underlined his recovery from knee surgery by squeezing the penalty past Andersson.