FEEL the FEAR

Murphy agrees with boss Gerrard that it is crucial opponents aren’t rubbing their hands when they visit Ibrox and that it’s time to...

‘Teams that come into this stadium need to start feeling us. They need to start feeling Rangers again and what Rangers are about.’

THOSE were the words used by Steven Gerrard deep inside a silent, deserted Ibrox late on Friday night as he looked forward to the real business getting underway against Macedonians FK Shkupi on Thursday.

They are variations on a running theme, the basis of the mantra he has been driving into the minds of his players over the three weeks or so that he has had them under his charge.

For some, there may be a spot of homework required on precisely what this hallowed corner of Govan used to represent. A visit to YouTube for a quick tutorial on the Nine-InA-Row years, perhaps, or a look into the merry bedlam of some of the more chaotic European nights.

‘Parma 1999’ or ‘Dynamo Kiev 1987’ tapped into the search bar should just about do it.

For Jamie Murphy, though, there is no need for an internet refresher course.

Asked about his biggest European nights as a Rangers supporter, he mentions the 3-2 Champions League win over Porto in 2005 and the 1-1 home draw with Inter Milan later in that campaign, which permitted the Ibrox club to become the first Scottish team to qualify from the group stage of the tournament.

Murphy was 16 back then. ‘Those are games that stick in my head, as well as the run to the UEFA Cup final in 2008,’ he remarked.

Given everything that has unfolded at Rangers since, those nights seem like echoes from another time. Yet, Murphy is insistent that the club will return to the prominence of old and that Ibrox will become the fortress Gerrard demands.

The new manager has spoken a lot about wanting the opposition to ‘feel’ Rangers.

Murphy is one man who has plenty of his own emotion wrapped up in the club and is clear when asked what the Liverpool legend’s particular choice of phrase means to him.

‘I think he wants us to be a team people fear,’ said the former Brighton player. ‘He doesn’t want it to be easy for clubs to come here and think: “Oh, we might have a chance here today”.

‘A few years back, that is what it was like. Everyone feared coming to Ibrox. That’s what we need to make it again.

‘We can get back to that. Whether it takes two weeks or two years, I don’t know but it’s up to us to do it.’

Saying it is one thing. Doing it is another. Rangers remain a damaged institution, still trying to get back on some kind of even keel after the financial meltdown of 2012. Is it realistic to think they can get back to what they once were?

‘Definitely,’ stated Murphy. ‘The club has been through some bad times over the past five or six years and we want to try to get it back to where we were. You can only build one stage at a time, get through rounds, perform, score goals, so it’s up to us to go out on Thursday and put us on the first step.’

Of course, this is a Rangers squad light on European experience. It is where goalkeeper Allan McGregor’s return to the club could prove important.

Injury stopped him from making it all the way to that UEFA Cup final but few can forget how his quarter-final display away to Werder Bremen — and that amazing 86th-minute save from home forward Boubacar Sanogo — kept the dream of Manchester alive.

McGregor brings lots of experience and a knowledge of what it is to be a Rangers player. While Murphy boasts his own background of European qualifying games with Motherwell, the 28-year-old attacker is conscious of what an influential figure from the Rangers, if you like, can add to the Gerrard era.

‘It’s great to have someone in the changing room who has been at the club, won trophies, league titles, Trebles and played on the biggest stages in Europe,’ he said.

‘Allan is there for advice for any of the younger ones — and even some of the older ones who have not played in Europe before.

‘I can tell the boys a few stories about Europe and I am sure Allan will tell a few better ones. We’re always here to speak to people.’

Murphy, mind you, has a special place in the record books at Motherwell after his contribution

there in UEFA competition.

‘Yeah, I’m their all-time top scorer in Europe,’ he said smiling. ‘With seven goals, I think.

‘I played against loads of teams in Europe with Motherwell. We had Panathinaikos in the Champions League, Levante and a few others.

‘I always enjoyed playing in Europe. It was a big thing for Motherwell and a big start to the season to play against teams ranked higher than us.

‘Maybe it brought out the best in me. It was quite early in my career, so it was a chance to prove yourself on a different stage.’

Murphy’s experiences at Fir Park, however, give him some insight into just how motivated FK Shkupi will be to pull off a shock on Thursday in the first leg of the first qualifying round of the Europa League.

‘When I was at Motherwell, we were going into games against teams like Panathinaikos and being really up for it,’ he added. ‘We didn’t do that well, but it was our biggest and first game of the season.

‘We’re well aware our opponents on Thursday will be well up for it. They’ll be looking forward to playing in Europe just as much as we are.

‘But we must perform. If we can do that and score goals like we can, we should go through.’

Being switched-on is crucial. Just 12 months ago, a Rangers side containing a number of those still in Gerrard’s plans turned in a pitiful display in Luxembourg and went out of the Europa League qualifiers to Progres Niederkorn following a 2-0 second-leg defeat.

Murphy remembers it well. ‘I was at Brighton when I heard the result,’ he said. ‘Everyone down there could see the disappointment in my face. Connor Goldson will tell you.

‘It’s just up to us to make sure it doesn’t happen again.’

We want to get the club back to where we were. It’s up to us to do it