What a difference a week makes in the life of a Rangers captain.Last Thursday evening, Lawrence Shankland was the man put up in front of the cameras to explain — well, try to explain — how his side had managed to find a way to chuck the prospect of European football in the bin for the season after being dumped out of the Conference League by Jablonec.Apologies to the supporters were made. Apologies were not accepted.Last night, he lapped up the adulation of those same — formerly furious — fans after grabbing the goals which handed his side their second Premiership victory on the bounce.Let’s not get carried away here. He still looks some way off the player we’ve seen tear up the top flight with Hearts in recent years. But he’s getting there, slowly but surely.As are Rangers, for that matter. Look, there are about a dozen issues for manager Derek McInnes — in the stands as he served the first of a two-game ban — to solve. But, just as they did in Sunday’s victory at Pittodrie, his players ground out a big result once again. Lawrence Shankland celebrates his winner against Falkirk The Rangers striker fires home the first goal of the game in a tight encounterThat it wasn’t in the least bit pretty is completely irrelevant. Motherwell at Ibrox will be a tough test on Saturday. Then there is the small matter of an Old Firm double-header to come afterwards.But at least, at long last, there is some momentum being built going in to that run.They will be helped, no doubt, by having Nico Raskin to call upon. It looked for all the world like the Belgian was on his way to Besiktas on Wednesday morning, only for the deal to fall through.That he was in the starting XI here came as a surprise to everyone given he was ditched for the previous two squads amid all the speculation. Rangers are clearly better with him than without.After being second best in the early exchanges, Raskin and Co went in front with eight minutes on the clock.It started with the 25-year-old on the edge of his own box, picking up a loose ball and sending James Penrice scampering down the left-hand side. The full-back moved it on to Djeidi Gassama, who drove at the home defence unopposed before finding Shankland 18 yards out.The skipper took a heavy touch initially, but adjusted his body quite brilliantly to rifle into the roof of the net beyond a static Scott Bain. The Bairns keeper had a shocker against Celtic at the weekend and he didn’t cover himself in glory here either.That was Shankland’s third goal of the season, and his first from open play.He might have netted a second of the evening on the 15-minute mark, capitalising on some indecision in the Falkirk backline to steal in and get a snapshot away from range. High and wide it went.That came just seconds after Ryan Strain had tried his luck from 25 yards at the end of a short corner routine as Falkirk looked to regain some control. Meat and drink for Ivor Pandur.Kim Min-su thought he’d opened his account for his new club midway through the half after being given far too much room outside the Falkirk box. His curling effort beat Bain, but cannoned back off the post.The South Korean had another pop from the same spot shortly after. This time, Bain got down to parry it away, with Raskin skewing the follow-up into the side netting. He should have hit the target.Just as he was in Sunday’s win at Aberdeen, Min-su was at the heart of everything good about Rangers going forward. Picking up space in huge gaps behind the Falkirk midfield, he turned and ran at the defence at every opportunity.Goodness knows Rangers have needed some spark in the final third in the early part of this season — amongst many other things. The former Girona man certainly looks the part.He could have had a couple of assists to his name in the first half alone, with both Gassama and Findlay Curtis spurning decent chances after good work from the 20-year-old. JAcob Murrell missed a gilt-edged opportunity for Falkirk after an Emmanuel Fernandez errorFalkirk’s equaliser on the stroke of half-time came from nowhere.Cammy Devlin coughed up possession cheaply in the middle of the park, with the ball making its way to Ethan Ross. He roasted Olwethu Makhanya for pace down the right before sending a low ball in to the danger area, which was prodded into his own net by the sliding Kosta Nedeljkovic on his first start for the club.Within minutes of the restart, Falkirk passed up a golden chance to take the lead. Ross — this time on the left — evaded a couple of half-hearted challenges before putting it on a plate for DC Murrell on the penalty spot. His tame first-time strike trickled through Pandur.Shankland should have made him pay instantly at the other end. Having stolen possession 35 yards from goal, he played a one-two with Curtis but, with just Bain to beat, somehow dragged his shot wide of target.There was far more conviction about the way he booted the nearby spare ball in to the stands as he took out his frustration.Emmanuel Fernandez — a bomb-scare all night — did his level best to give Falkirk a helping hand on the hour mark, passing straight to Murrell under no pressure whatsoever.Perhaps the new arrival simply had too much time to think about it. Perhaps he just panicked. Either way, he made a backside of the finish by firing straight at Pandur.The more the game wore on, the more nervy Rangers became, with no one seemingly capable of putting their foot on the ball and calming things down.Gassama took matters in to his own hands on 73 minutes, showing a delightful touch to get away from Strain before cutting inside and taking aim. Unfortunately for him, the shot went inches wide of the far post.Aodhan Doherty couldn’t believe his luck when the ball fell to him inside the Rangers box after Ross McCrorie and keeper Pandur left a looping cross to one another to deal with. The Irishman couldn’t take advantage.Rangers’ winner came with 11 minutes to play, with Shankland taking a McCrorie pass in his stride before passing in the bottom corner to secure a big three points which for long spells, looked like they wouldn’t get.