Ally McCoist had hoped Rangers would be cruising into the Active Nation Scottish Cup quarter-finals by the time star strikers Kris Boyd and Kenny Miller made their comebacks against St Mirren.
Instead, the Scotland stars were thrown into the action when the fifth-round tie was still deadlocked and neither side managed to find the winning goal.
Boyd's return from a hernia operation, in particular, was highly anticipated and, although Rangers had to settle for an Ibrox replay, McCoist believes both players will benefit from their run-out in Paisley.
The Rangers number two confirmed the pre-match plan was to swap Kyle Lafferty and Steven Naismith for the regular strike duo, and admitted: "We didn't create an awful lot more than when the boys went on, to be fair to the two lads who were on.
"We just wanted to give them an opportunity, especially Boydy who is back from a difficult double hernia. You don't want to rush them.
"In an ideal situation we planned to get them on at some stage - which we did do - but we hoped we would be 2-0 or 3-0 up. That wasn't the case and they had to go on at 0-0.
"They both did fine and will both benefit from that experience."
Madjid Bougherra also made his first appearance since the end of December after returning from international duty with Algeria at the African Nations Cup, and he plugged the gap left by the suspended David Weir to great effect.
McCoist added: "You know what you get from Madjid, he has a stature and a presence. I thought he did two things bordering on brilliance.
"He had a bit of magic on the right wing and put the ball across and then cleared off the line and defended well. He is a player that any team would miss."
Both teams - who will also face each other in the Co-operative Insurance Cup final next month - must now do it all again at Ibrox a week on Wednesday.
McCoist said: "If you are offering the option of an extra game or being out the cup, I would take a replay any day.
"It gives us 10 days or so to get one or two back and Maurice Edu and DaMarcus Beasley are not too far away so we should have another couple of options and be able to make one or two changes."
