LEE WALLACE never had a top flight medal round his neck. He still left Rangers with his head held high.

An Ibrox career that started in a Champions League clash with Malmo ended almost eight years later with a run-out against Hibernian.

Wallace could never have imagined the story in between and one chapter stands out amongst several remarkable ones in Light Blue.

The details of who said what and when inside that Hampden dressing room last April remain unclear to this day but the chain of events thereafter is easier to piece together.

Wallace and Kenny Miller were disciplined by Rangers and later won an appeal to the SPFL against the fines they had been hit with. While Miller would leave Rangers that summer, Wallace remained for the last year of his deal.

That appearance against Hibs was only his third of the season under Steven Gerrard and now it is on the future with Queens Park Rangers that Wallace is focusing.

He can look back at his Ibrox career with pride as fans praise him for his loyalty. Through all the highs and the lows, one major frustration comes to mind for the defender.

“I think it is a very difficult one,” Wallace said. “I have chosen through me being me and the class that I feel that I do have that I have always remained quiet on it.

“For me, it was about working hard and trying to make as big an impact as I could to the Rangers players in there at the time, even though I wasn’t playing. I would like to think that if you spoke to any of the guys, both players and staff, that my impact, whether I was on the pitch or not, was still fairly strong.

“I still wanted the team to do ever so well, still wanted the management team to do ever so well and every single day in training, whether that was through driving the standards myself, I wanted to be the best that I could be and try and be a role model in a non-playing capacity, if you like.

“When I look back, and I know it has only been a month or so since I left, I am absolutely gutted, of course, as everybody will know.

“I think if I was to try and frame it as a regret, the only regret that I have is the fact that I was never able to win true Rangers silverware.

“I had a fantastic journey with Rangers, absolutely a lot of ups and downs, but the fact that I stayed, there was never a moments regret on that. I stayed for the fight, I was proud to do that with our incredible supporters. We managed to retain league status, which was part of the journey, part of the fightback. But my one and only regret is that I couldn’t at any point be part of a winning team of true Rangers silverware, which would have been a real proud moment for me.

“I know that would have been incredible for our supporters. I know they are in good hands, I know they are a growing squad and last season would have been an incredible educational journey for the manager and the players and I think they are going to go on and do really well this year.”

The months before that now infamous afternoon at Hampden as Graeme Murty’s side lost 4-0 to Celtic in the Scottish Cup semi-finals had been tough for Wallace.

Injury had prevented him from playing a part as Rangers tried to pick up the pieces following Pedro Caixinha’s disastrous reign as manager.

Matters quickly spiralled as Rangers found themselves in a state of flux before Gerrard was appointed at Ibrox.

Wallace was successful in his appeal but, having already lost the captaincy, the 31-year-old knew he faced a far tougher challenge to win back a place in the Gers defence.

Wallace said: “It absolutely does [give me satisfaction to clear my name]. We smashed it, me and Kenny smashed that appeal but it was a pretty simple procedure because all we had to do was tell the truth and to speak openly and honestly about that scenario at that time.

“It was a fairly comfortable process and the outcome was that we smashed the appeal. From that moment, I always knew it would be difficult moving forward because of that and I was smart enough to understand that.

“Like I say, there was never one day when I returned to that club, when I returned to training or I was around the players or staff, that I made any disappointment be known.

“For me, it was about never detracting from the positivity that the manager had generated at that point. I put the team before me, I put the club before me and that was that.

“Absolutely there will be a point in time where I will maybe get to speak to certain people at the club but, for now, I think they are on an exciting journey. They have got a Europa League game to prepare for, they have got a new season to prepare for and I have got my own situation to look forward to moving forward.”

The reception that Wallace received on his final appearance at Ibrox was merited for a man that had played his part during the most turbulent years in Rangers’ history.

The moment that he was made club captain by Warburton ahead of his first campaign as boss will forever mean much to the left-back.

“That was the most incredible moment of my career, there is absolutely no getting away from that,” Wallace told talkSPORT. “And I have to touch on the fact that I am now working for the man that gave me that incredible honour.

“You really are lost for words in terms of the magnitude, the responsibility. I would like to think that I lived that role in a 24/7 manner.

“Living in Edinburgh, it was slightly different and I was away from the intensity of the city, but it was still a full-on role for me and one which, over the piece, there was a lot of learning during that period.

“It was an unbelievable honour to put that armband on, to lead, to be the best that I could be every single day in training and in games and give my absolute all for it.

“It was one of the most incredible moments of my career and I am ever so proud of that.”