IT may only be five years, but that trip south will feel like a lifetime ago to many Rangers fans.

It was the biggest night the Light Blue legions had experienced in four decades, for some the first time ever, and while they were left distraught and disappointed, tomorrow's anniversary of that evening in Manchester will still bring back feelings of pride.

Nobody could have imagined that, just a few years after losing to Zenit St Petersburg in the Uefa Cup final, the Gers would just have tucked the Irn-Bru Third Division title into the Ibrox trophy cabinet.

Life has changed significantly for Graeme Smith, too. The keeper was Neil Alexander's understudy at the City of Manchester Stadium, but is now plying his trade at Peterhead.

Much has gone on during the last five seasons, with a look back in time offering respite from the problems of the present and uncertainty of the future.

Smith told SportTimes: "A lot of things have happened to Rangers and for myself since then.

"I have great memories of that season, but I can't believe that it is five years ago.

"When you look at the squad of players that was there at that time and the squad that is there just now, there is a huge difference.

"Some of it is Rangers' doing and some of it is not. They are the cards that have been dealt and the club are getting on with it now.

"They are desperate to get back through the leagues and be back playing European football again.

"It wasn't just the Uefa Cup, we had some great nights in the Champions League that year as well.

"You just have to look at the teams we played and the European pedigree they had to see how big an achievement it was.

"People kept saying that the run would end at every round because we were playing big European teams, but we kept going and kept getting through them.

"The final was a bit of a letdown, we didn't perform as well as we had in the other games."

Manchester may have been the culmination of a remarkable European campaign for Walter Smith's side, but it was not the only highlight of a memorable season.

The 2-0 defeat to Dick Advocaat's Zenit would only leave questions of what might have been as the chance to clinch their first continental cup since Barcelona in 1972 evaded Rangers.

After narrowly missing out on a place in the last 16 of the Champions League, the consolation competition almost yielded a huge prize for the Gers.

Panathinaikos, Werder Bremen, Sporting Lisbon and Fiorentina were all beaten during an exhilarating, nerve-jangling few weeks, but Smith admits the biggest night of them all passed them by.

He said: "The build-up to the game was unbelievable but after the elation of beating Fiorentina on penalties, we still had league games to play and that was taking its toll. The amount of games some of the boys played was unreal.

"It was just game after game across all four competitions. We had a great squad of players, though.

"It was a letdown for the boys and the fans because I don't think we performed to the level we could have. We realised we didn't do ourselves justice on the night."

Defeat in Manchester was not the only low point of that 2007/2008 campaign for the Gers, with their dreams of a historic quadruple ultimately fading during a frantic final few weeks of a hectic season.

Rangers won 41 of the 68 matches they played across four competitions that term, but were only rewarded with the Scottish Cup and League Cup as Celtic snatched the SPL title just days after their Manchester heartache.

Smith said: "We were playing Thursday-Sunday for weeks and we were always a day behind Celtic. We didn't lose a lot of games after the Uefa ties but it was picking up points here and there rather than going on a winning run.

"The tiredness did take its toll in the end. We had a great squad, although it perhaps wasn't the biggest. We weren't like other big European teams who could change their team from game to game.

"The guys that played the majority of the games must take immense credit. They will look back and think 'what a season that was'.

"They will be disappointed to lose the league at Pittodrie and lose in Manchester, but it was a tremendous effort and a great year for Rangers."