They would love to still have a league title to fight for but at least victory yesterday meant they finished their 68-game campaign with two domestic cups to show for their toil.

It wasn't the haul they had hoped for. Wasn't even the one many were predicting by the time yesterday's opponents Queen of the South completed their own league dealings at the end of April. But, while the Dumfries side have been trying to prevent rust setting in, Rangers have been trying to avoid the mental and physical fatigue which come with the kind of run-in they have had to negotiate.

For them, the question was always going to be whether they would run out of gas before they ran out of fixtures. Four weeks ago the talk was of the quadruple and the fixture pile-up. For Queen of the South, their SFL season was over. They had a holiday to Magaluf, a chance to recharge batteries.

While they enjoyed the sun, Rangers withered as the heat was turned up on their season. In the days between Queens' last league game and yesterday's Scottish Cup finale, Walter Smith's men were involved in nine vital matches. Wrapped up in that were their final seven SPL matches, including the second head-to-head with Celtic, a UEFA Cup semi-final and final. It was a relentless programme with little or no recovery time.

Beaten by a better team in the UEFA Cup final, they will argue that the SPL title was theirs for the taking. If only they could have had a break. As it was, this campaign has been a battle of wills and a test of endurance, in individual matches as well as the season as a whole. A tale of tiredness, some say, a climax of tired excuses, others will argue.

What can't be disputed is that 68 games in a single season is unprecedented. Others have racked up an almighty tally when European progress has been factored in, but the fact that 30 of those were cup ties tells its own energy-sapping tale.

That two of those were replays also suggests Rangers have been partially culpable as does the necessity for extra time on other occasions.

On the way suspensions and injuries have played a part – as they have for every team – but with little recovery time and games coming so thick and fast, unlike other sides, a week out for a Rangers player this term has tended to equate to two or even three games missed thanks to the scheduling.

After a weary eight-day spell in which both the UEFA Cup and league went a-begging, the thing those associated with Rangers were becoming most tired of was losing.

So near yet so far was becoming the mantra, from the quadruple chance down to a dint at the cup double. But even when they started the match at a fairly leisurely pace, the body language languid rather than fired up, the tempo more pedestrian than full-pelt, having lost the big two there was always the feeling they would dig deep to see this one out.

Even then it seems there is a thinking at Ibrox that there is no honour in a victory without industry. Two goals up at half-time they were pegged back to two-all and forced to battle all the way by a determined Queens side, who – like Rangers when they took on more illustrious sides in their European foray – were unperturbed by reputation until Kris Boyd, one of the freshest players in Smith's squad, found enough spring in his legs to rise above the defence and net the winner.

It was only at the final whistle that Rangers could eye the leg-sapping journey up the Hampden steps with any kind of relish. Suddenly there were no tired legs as they danced about the pitch and frolicked with silverware, giving their own version of the bouncy, bouncy which Celtic fans had mimicked at Tannadice on Thursday. It's an aerobic session they could enjoy because, after it, was all done, they knew the curtain would fall on the season and they could finally put their feet up.