Rangers face yet another stern test when Auxerre drop in at Ibrox and it is imperative that the team again rises to the task. A point is all we need to progress to the last 32 of the UEFA Cup but, having enjoyed bragging rights since the Great Unwashed bid farewell to the European scene, we must to do OUR bit to lift the team, to make them want to find that extra yard, that little extra something which turns a 50-50 ball into a Rangers ball and makes sure the blue flag flies for a wee while longer.
All of Europe will be watching (the game is being shown ‘live’ on Eurosport) so we must be at our inspiring best, letting it rip from the first minute to the last and sending out a message that WE Are The People, the ones who can add to the theatre of the occasion by creating the atmosphere which any player worth his salt will want to savour. Dado Prso singled out the Ibrox atmosphere as being extra special when he played for Monaco against Rangers three years ago and this surely was a factor when he was thinking over various offers during the summer.
Not for a second am I suggesting that Auxerre are likely to run scared from a rocking Ibrox. Hey, these guys have just beaten Marseille at the Velodrome so they can handle themselves in a hostile arena. But unlike those who back a certain other club, we are not about intimidating opponents, we are there to drive on our own team, the famous Glasgow Rangers, and we can make a difference.
A draw is all we need so, although it would be great to see Rangers brush Auxerre aside and, depending on the outcome in Graz, topping the group, we must never lose sight of the practicalities of the situation. If we are stuck at 0-0 and the Gers start to play keep-ball, spare us the ‘get the feckin baw up the feckin park ya feckin tosser’ routine. Qualifying, whether or not we do it with style, is what it is all about.
Auxerre are no mugs. They didn’t make too bright a start to this group but they know that beating us will be their passport to the knock-out stages. Driving a wedge between our team and the fans will be high on their list of priorities so it is safe to assume they will slow the game down and seek to frustrate the crowd. More than 40 years have passed since I saw my first Euro tie at Ibrox but we are still every bit as impatient as we were back in 1960 when Sparta Rotterdam turned an 82,587 crowd against the team and won 1-0 to force a play-off after the Gers had won 3-2 in Holland.
We mustn’t do Auxerre’s dirty work for them. Drawing 0-0 might not be nice to look at but it will be enough to keep Rangers in Europe while others (I wonder who?) have tucked their passports away in a drawer. The ends will justify the means on this occasion. We are not quite good enough to suss out who we might get in the next round by jockeying for position in the draw. We just want to be in there and if winning (or drawing) ugly is what it takes, so be it.
The word is that Jean-Alain Boumsong will be back to face his former club and that is certainly good news, as is the quote that only Real Madrid could lure him away from Ibrox. The latest in a long list of top talents to roll off the Auxerre conveyor belt, Boum-boom is the sort of player Big Eck can build his team around for a number of yearsto come and nothing would do more to convince the big man to stay with Rangers than to find himself part of a team which is good enough, and cute enough, to maintain a presence on the big stage.
This can be the launching pad towards a very exciting second half of the season…or it might be the first step on the slippery slope. We all want the same outcome so lets bond together, the noisy stirring the more reticent, fans getting behind the players, players responding to the fans, and together we can be part of one of those extra-special European nights.
We all have a part to play…so lets just do it.
LITTLE BOY BLUE