GRAEME Murty isn't just taking the team when Rangers do Old Firm battle against Celtic on Sunday. So one-sided do some people feel the outcome will be on the day that they would have you believe that he is also taking one FOR the team.

With the club's new head coach, still most likely to be Pedro Caixinha, not being unveiled until after the match - perhaps for both contractual and presentational reasons - Murty's role on Sunday is being seen as the football equivalent of a human sacrifice. In other words, he is on a hiding to nothing. And quite likely to be on the end of an Old Firm hiding.

But not only does such an analysis ignore the fact that the previous two derbies this season have still been up for grabs until the dying stages, but Murty himself - until recently cheerfully employed as the club's Under-20 coach - seems determined to use the experience for what he can gain out of it. Whatever the circumstances, managing a team in this match is quite a thing to have on your cv.

If the whole episode has certain echoes of the fate which befell Kenny McDowall in February of 2015 - even if the club's board has changed by then - Alex Smith for one hopes it has a happier ending. Smith, the respected guv'nor of the Scottish Managers and Coaches Association, watched his former 1987 St Mirren Scottish Cup hero McDowall become so soured by his experience after taking the reigns at Rangers after his good friend Ally McCoist was put on gardening leave in 2014 that one of Scotland's most promising coaches currently appears to be lost to the game.

In retrospect, McDowall didn't actually make too bad a fist of things as he led a demoralised Rangers team into a League Cup semi-final against Celtic at Hampden for the first Old Firm match since April 2012. While the match wasn't in doubt after two Celtic goals in the opening half hour from Kris Commons and Leigh Griffiths, at least Rangers avoided embarrassment on a rutted Hampden pitch. Whatever else was going down at Ibrox around that period, Smith feels that McDowall is a loss to Scottish football and has urged Murty to treat Sunday's match as the "great adventure" that it is. The Old Firm match was McDowall's fifth in charge - the previous four were three wins and a 4-0 defeat to Hibs - and will be Murty's sixth.

"Kenny was very, very happy just being a coach or an assistant," Smith told Herald Sport. "He loved that position, loved being one of the boys, and the Rangers position was kind of thrust on him. He said he would do it just to help the club, help the ship sailing, that kind of thing, but it was a very, very difficult time for him. And as a result it has possibly soured him from being a manager again or getting involved in football. That was a shame because he was a super-enthusiastic boy who had a lot to offer.

"I think the seriousness of being a manager of a club like Rangers or Celtic can weigh heavily on you," he added. "But Kenny is a big loss to football. Because he was a very popular guy, and a very good coach. He would probably have still been in there if Walter [Smith] or Ally 'McCoist] had still been in there under normal circumstances.

"Graeme is totally different from Kenny in that he has not been a coach for long. He is a relatively young coach learning the trade as a youth coach at Ibrox, having played all his football in England. He is still trying to adjust to the culture and very young to be put in charge of a club like Rangers. Hopefully he will see it, and I am sure he will, as a great adventure for him, somewhere where he can gain as much experience as he can in a short period.

"To take charge of Rangers even for a short while could be worth two or three years or more of working at a championship club, just to sample that kind of intensity. It may inspire him to be a manager and take his career further. Let's hope it doesn't damage him, and leave him shattered or disengaged. But I think the players have responded really well to him in the last few days and I am sure he will take the positives from it."

While all has gone quiet on Rangers' pursuit of Ross Wilson as director of football, it would seem remiss not to garner the thoughts of a man who worked closely with the in-demand Southampton head of scouting and recruitment during his days in a lowly player liaison role at Falkirk. "I always knew Ross had a future in the game, because he was so enthusiastic and so keen at everything he put his hand to," said Smith. "One of his secrets is that he doesn't take anything to do with other people's jobs. What he has to do is for the sole benefit of the professional staff. He doesn't stick his nose into other people's jobs. He does his own job."

The final word goes to McDowall. “I didn’t expect to be manager but when it happens you just take the reins and crack on," he said at the time. "It’s all you can do."