GLASGOW (AFP) - Rangers manager Walter Smith believes Ibrox fans are about to see the best of Daniel Cousin after the striker scored in the 3-1 win over Motherwell on Wednesday.

The Gabon international opened the scoring as Rangers beat their third-placed visitors to stay two points behind Scottish Premier League leaders Celtic.

Cousin, who joined from French club Lens for just over one million pounds in the summer, has now scored seven goals but this has not stopped some of the Glasgow club's supporters complaining about his work-rate.

Smith admits Cousin may be more of an out and out goalscorer than he originally thought but he also believes the striker has suffered due a lack of natural playing partners at the club.

French forward Jean-Claude Darcheville would be the natural foil for Cousin but he has missed a significant part of the season through injury.

Kris Boyd, top goalscorer at the club, is another possibility but Smith appears to believe he is too similar to Cousin.

Steven Naismith, meanwhile, is still struggling to recapture the form that convinced Smith to spend almost two million pounds signing him from Kilmarnock in January.

The Rangers boss said: "Sometimes you bring a player in and he's slightly different to what you thought. It may be that Daniel is an out and out goalscorer and if he is then that means we have two.

"But he scored a good goal against Motherwell. It was a good move and a good finish."

Smith continued: "When you bring a player in you have to try and help him as much as you can to settle in.

"A big problem for us this season has been Jean-Claude Darcheville has struggled to play as many games as we would have liked.

"We have a number of strikers at the club but we need a certain kind of partner to help him out and we don't have them at the present moment.

"Daniel has came in and scored a number of goals for us and a good one against Motherwell. I can't ask anyone to be patient but I'm sure if he keeps working away he will have a response from the fans shortly."

Rangers were made to work hard for their victory against an impressive Motherwell side.

The Ibrox side had taken the lead in the 42nd minute when Steven Whittaker drove to the byline and cut the ball back to Cousin who struck a first-time, left-foot shot into the corner of the net from 12 yards.

Motherwell started the second half strongly and created several chances before finally levelling in the 65th minute.

Ross McCormack's corner to the front post was allowed to bounce along the six-yard box and right-back Paul Quinn reacted first to head home.

But in the 70th minute the Ibrox side were gifted a second goal to restore their lead when Motherwell striker Chris Porter deflected Chris Burke's corner past his own goalkeeper.

And in injury time Boyd, who had replaced Cousin in the 75th minute, was put through by Burke and he slid the ball beyond goalkeeper Graeme Smith.

The victory means Rangers remained two points behind Celtic - who won 2-0 at Dundee United courtesy of second half goals from Dutch international Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink and captain Stephen McManus.

However, the Ibrox side have played two games less than their Old Firm rivals - with the sides meeting for the second time this season on January 2 at Celtic Park.