TO borrow a phrase from my old manager Jock Wallace, Rangers look as if they have the battle fever on.

For the first time in years, it looks as though the Rangers supporters have a team that knows what playing for the club is all about, and players who have caught the Rangers bug themselves representing the club.

To go to Russia and dig out that result was incredible when you consider everything that happened. This side have that togetherness, and it hasn’t been seen since 2012.

The first thing that Alfredo Morelos and Jon Flanagan should do when they have a free week is take every other man who played on the night out for a meal and a few drinks, because they saved their bacon big-time. Those red cards could have been the difference between getting into the group stages or not, and missing out on the financial rewards that will now come the club’s way, and their teammates didn’t half bail them out.

What was hugely encouraging from a Rangers perspective was the way that the rest of the team were so quickly able to change their mindset to one that was pushing and probing to kill the tie off, to one that knew it had to defend for their lives.

The manager deserves huge credit, because he has managed to forge them into a unit, and straight away you could see that these players were prepared to stick together and do whatever it took to get over the line and through the tie by hook or by crook.

Their organisation was great, but they were also so impressive in the way that they fought and scratched to protect their goal. The manager and their staff have managed to instil in these players a spirit that they are all in it together, and that shown through in fine style not only during the game, but in the wonderful celebrations afterwards.

There are very few teams who have come through that entire qualification process to make the group stages, and they deserve such huge credit.

The fans are lapping it up, and they really believe that this manager can deliver something big for the club. They were almost selling out friendlies against Bury and Wigan at the start of the season, and what they have seen since has only made them even more excited about what may lie ahead.

The supporters are fanatical about the team and you can see the players are buying into it too. And the reaction of Gerrard himself was brilliant to see.

There seems to be a realisation that this team could be on the brink of something special, and what would be more special than a win over Celtic this Sunday?

If Rangers can go to Russia and get a result with nine men, then they will believe they can go to Celtic Park and get a result too. It certainly won’t be easy, because in my book Celtic are a better team than Ufa.

Celtic know that they probably have the better players overall, but they will also know for the first time in a good while that they will be facing a team that will fight for absolutely everything over the 90 minutes.

Celtic might not have lost in the last 11 games against Rangers, but the Ibrox club’s own unbeaten run of 12 games since Gerrard took charge will give them great confidence too.

Celtic have been reading like everyone else about this resurgent Rangers team, and while they may not have been at their best so far this term, there is no doubt that they will represent the toughest test of this Rangers side so far.

This 90 minutes will give Gerrard his best indication yet of where his team really are and how far they have come. Fans feel it in their water that Rangers have turned the corner, but they aren’t all the way around it just yet.

If Rangers can defend better than they did against Motherwell last week, I think they have enough about them to get a draw, and I think they would take that right now.