MOST of us are too adult to give credence to silly superstitions, hoodoos, jinxes et al. I am certainly not given to paying attention to that kind of nonsense. Touch wood, I won't ever need to.

Yet, we can be a little forgiving if Rangers supporters are beginning to believe that the bad gremlin is mucking them about. It was a thought that occurred on Saturday, as we pondered the absent names on the Ibrox team-list before the game with Livingston. After the game, we pondered them even more as we discovered that Russell Latapy had added a new dimension to the discussion. He couldn't even get there on time.

It could be argued, of course, that quite a few of those who did wear blue shirts didn't turn up at all, but we ought to let that drift on.

The serious point to be made is that Rangers, who have played two league games and two legs of a European qualifying tie, go into the crucial meeting with Fenerbahce on Wednesday with a string of doubtful, excluded, or injured players. The season is only 12 days old and yet there are doubts about Lorenzo Amoruso, Arthur Numan, and Claudio Reyna, while Ronald de Boer and Christian Nerlinger are ruled out altogether.

Those five would-be certain starters against Fenerbahce, all things being equal, and, when you have to make allowances for Michael Mols, who is still working his way back to match fitness, Barry Ferguson, who, because of domestic suspension, has played only one-and-half competitive games (against Maribor), and Allan Johnston, who played half a game on Saturday but is heading for Middlesbrough anyway, it begins to look as if last season's tale of woe is about to be rerun.

In those circumstances, it is understandable if there is a suspicion that, what Bert Konterman might refer to as ''Devil's work'', is going on around Ibrox.

The fact that only five players, Stefan Klos, Claudio Caniggia, Fernando Ricksen, Craig Moore, and Konterman have played in all four of the club's competitive games so far is a startling indication of the lack of continuity already. Of course, with a big squad, there will nearly always be changes but this looks a touch excessive.

None of this will be accepted as cause for failure to get into the Champions League by the Ibrox supporters, who endured a season of abject misery as their rivals across the city kidnapped every trophy available.

No-one will be more aware of this than Advocaat himself. The manager, privately, might well be battering his head against the splendid pristine walls of his new office overlooking the training pitch at the grandest football facility in the land, but he knows well enough that excuses will not engender much sympathy.

Yet, if only in the interests of fairness, it should be said that, if Celtic were going into their equally demanding Champions League qualifier against Ajax with five top-team regulars either absent or doubtful, their chances would be considerably diminished.

Allowing all of that, there are a couple of worrying aspects of the Ibrox play that have shown up already this season, which the manager will have to tackle if the team has to have any chance of overcoming the Turkish champions.

Apart from the fact that the defending, not just by the defence, has been sloppy on too many occasions, Rangers have developed a tendency to start the game at half-time. In the four matches I have seen, they have been pretty well fast asleep for much of the opening period but at least have given themselves a wake-up call once the second half began.

As Tore Andre Flo indicated in midweek, they will not get away with that against Fenerbahce. It may seem like an unjustifiable complacency but that is more likely an impression gathered because players are working to their game- plan, rather than the manager's.

If they have learned any lessons at all from the experience of the first halves against Maribor or Livingston, it is how each of those teams, with lesser talent, bridged the gap by commitment and team spirit.

A hallmark of rival Celtic's all-conquering season was a genuine commitment to playing for each other, seen most of all in the unselfish style of their talismanic star turn, Henrik Larsson.

Too many times, it seems to me, players in blue shirts have played for themselves, going into hiding when things go wrong, needing half-time slaps, figuratively speaking, before doing a decent shift at the coalface.

Of all the many admiring descriptions given of Manchester United in the last few years, the one most often used by opponents is the surprise at how hard the players work for each other. It is a prerequisite of success in a sport that, despite the individuals who make it great to watch, remains essentially a team game.

They have real problems, do Rangers, but if they can get their act truly together they might yet deliver one in the eye to fate. We need the Old Firm to do us proud this week. Touch wood, they will.