ANDY HALLIDAY wasn’t on the park on that night in Luxembourg. In fact, he wasn’t even at Rangers.
He didn’t need to be to understand the significance of what had just unfolded against Progres Niederkorn as the Light Blues suffered the worst result in their history.
Banished to Baku by Pedro Caixinha, Halliday didn’t play his part in the humiliation. It still hurt, though.
This time, two years on, Halliday will be in the squad that Steven Gerrard takes to the Stade Josy Barthel for a rematch next month.
A 6-0 Ibrox win completed the job against St Joseph’s on Thursday night and another home tie next week should give Rangers the perfect platform to move towards the third qualifying round of the Europa League.
Halliday said: “We showed a lot of improvement last season and played a lot of good teams on the back of making the Europa League group stages. We showed we deserved to be in the competition but there will be question marks on the basis of the result two years ago so it’s a good chance for the boys who were here at that time to put things right.
“I actually wasn’t here at the time. I was in another country but it was still hugely disappointing. Even as someone still contracted to the club and obviously being a fan and wanting to support my team-mates and my friends it was a hugely disappointing time for the club and one that raised a lot of question marks early in the careers of a lot of Rangers players.
“We realise the repercussions of disappointing results like that so we need to be on guard and treat them with the respect we showed St Joseph’s. I do believe we’re a different team. We could have had an upset against St Joseph’s home or away but we approached the game in the right manner and did the job we had to.”
With a 10-0 aggregate win already under their belt, Rangers will now look to progress comfortably by Niederkorn over the next fortnight.
Gerrard is confident there will be no repeat of the shock second time out and Halliday knows significant improvements have been made since the disastrous Caixinha era.
He said: “One thing I will say is we have started this pre-season well but it is all about building momentum towards the start of the league campaign and, with respect to St Joseph’s, tougher games to come.
“We want to win every match we pay between now and then, whether it’s the friendly against Blackburn or Progres next week and hopefully we can continue to build that forward momentum going into the new season.
“It was a difficult journey last year and we played some good teams but I do feel we showed we deserved to be in the group stage with some impressive performances and results. It’s difficult in the latter rounds with the teams who come down from the Champions League and you will face some difficult fixtures but we cannot afford to look any further ahead than Progres in the next round - that was proved a couple of years ago.”
It is Gerrard that has been the catalyst for change for Rangers as the Liverpool legend has made his mark.
From the dark days, there is now light at the end of the tunnel at Ibrox.
Halliday said: “I’ve got to give the manager and his backroom staff a huge amount of credit in terms of coming in and breeding a real winning mentality within the group. We all know what the gaffer was like as a player and the type of character he was and he wants that within his team too. Every single day they have changed a lot.
“Even now they have incorporated some rewards for players who are winning in training sessions. We keep a tally on who wins what and who doesn’t and it breeds a winning mentality in every session, every day.
“Everything we want to be a part of we want to competitive within it and we want to win and that’s a huge change in the last couple of years and I give huge credit to the backroom staff for that.
“It’s all been very positive but I gave my honest assessment at the end of last season and we didn’t win anything. Ultimately, it was a huge disappointment and it’s something we have to put right this year. I’ve been as honest as I can.
“With all due respect, I’m a bit more confident this year but that’s not to take anything away from anyone else in the league. I do feel we’re improving as a group of players and a squad and I have a lot of confidence in the backroom staff we have here to do the right thing. Ultimately, we’re at Rangers Football Club and we can’t go X amount of years without winning a trophy.
“That’s what it comes down to and that’s where we’ve fallen short so far. There’s a lot of onus on us this season to win medals.”
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