DMAA

That's certainly the kind of game you'd want to give him his chance in, allowing others a rest I've advocated "quality over quantity" all summer and I'm delighted Gerrard has gone for that. We've brought in 12 and let 16 go. We need to be lean in order to make our money work harder for us in terms of our starting 11. At CB, in order of priority we'll have Goldson, Katic, New signing, McCrorie, Wallace. That's plenty for me. With Rossiter returning McCrorie will be happy to cover two positions after his "play me anywhere" plea.

On what we've seen of him I'd say he's earned a start because he caused Ufa and Shkupi's defences far more problems than the players starting ahead of him. His age doesn't matter as long as that is the case. If that ball hadn't hit Lafferty's arm he'd have won a penalty, and that's because he's trying to get in behind the defence instead of running in front of them all the time. If we start to get cocky we could see Tav and Barisic being the European full backs and Flanagan and Wallace playing domestically so that all players get rested. What's not in doubt is that Gerrard has a fantastic depth at full back now.

And yet again we get a pathetic match report (465 words long). Maybe we should be thankful, after all this is the longest match report we've had from our European run so far. But once more it's dwarfed by Celtic's match report (750 words), with endless discussion and analysis of their stumbling towards the group stages having got the easier draw possible. Isn't it time the BBC came clean and admitted their relationship with Rangers has changed far beyond simply not sending reporters to the stadium?

For the second week in a row I jumped in the car and switched the radio on within a few minutes of the game finishing and got absolutely no discussion of our game. On a big european night like that you'd expect a bit of analysis and discussion after such a big win but absolutely nothing they were just chatting away about Ayr United.

Have they every reported Celtic?

Spot on. This is why I felt Middleton should have been introduced far earlier. At least the gaffer spotted this problem when everyone thought left back was the least of our worries and signed Barisic. Flanagan could be a better option for away games though, I haven't seen enough of Barisic defensively yet.

Couldn’t agree more. I’ve been disappointed with how few chances he’s had (and how long it took tonight). I hope there are no penalties for not playing Kent because if there are he has no chance of breaking through.

Some huge performances out there. Katic and Goldson were immense. I’ve been blown away by Katic. Ryan Jack was amazing and Arfield’s link up play is world class. My bugbear tonight was Kent constantly running into congested areas. Give me Middleton from the start any day. Make no mistake the boy is no Gregg Wylde, he has far more to his game than pace and a left foot.

So tired of saying this but the ref was atrocious. Ufa’s defence were a bunch of divers and it killed the game ?

I didn’t see that but the wording is n that article by McLaughlin remains the same, are you thinking of another incident?

Sounds like there’s someone with a bit of common sense and professionalism at Motherwell who pulled him aside. We’ve faced a lot of mouthy opponents this season.

A quick look at their home and away record highlights the importance of tonight's game. The home-away difference will be far greater for us since we face a gruelling 9 and a half hour flight (from Edinburgh) for the away leg which is almost identical to flying to Astana, where Celtic lost 4-3 last season after hammering them 5-0 in the first leg.

Yes I missed him, I was working from the list der Berliner posted in the rumours thread

I don't think there's any doubt that will be the line-up. Looking at the squad I don't think there's any doubt Wallace will be on the bench. As far as I can see we only have 6 senior players to put in the bench including him. Bench: Foderingham, Wallace, McCrorie, Halliday, Middleton, Lafferty and a youth player

4LHD reporting fee as £450k including add-ons. Can't argue with that. I think he'll prove a very shrewd signing and another masterstroke from Allen and Gerrard.

Gerrard said yesterday that Wallace could feature on Thursday. To me that means he's been given the go ahead to play him which is a big surprise. But good news imo. The Worrall link is an exciting one. As usual ideally there would be the prospect of a permanent deal at the end but that doesn't look likely here. Karanka seems like a bit of an idiot to me. They've turned down a £12m bid for him and a few later he's 5th choice.

Massive blow, absolutely gutted. Will not be cheap to replace him.

And were the plastic pitches they tested well watered? Because Rugby Park certainly wasn't. Anyone who has played on these parks will know that they are actually decent pitches to play on but there's no question you're more likely to injure yourself because there is no give in the ground and the drier the pitch the more dangerous it is.

Surprise surprise. Always multiply predicted recovery times by 10 at Rangers. Big loss.

Another game that will be fascinating to watch and will shine a light again on how we are progressing. Ufa on paper appear to have a very decent English Championship level squad. A couple of their starting players had short spells there, one successful and one very unsuccessful (Paurevic at Huddersfield, double goalscorer vs Progres). On paper we should definitely take them, let's hope Gerrard and his team can deliver the goods again.

Don't know if anyone else listens to the Record Rangers pod but Scott McDermott says he knows Ross McCormack well and although there's been no contact he'd likely be keen on the move. Villa will probably accept a small part of his wages being paid. I'm not keen given his comments re Celtic, but on an objective level Gerrard might view it as worth a punt given there would be no risk with a loan and it's a cheap way of getting quality cover for both no9 and no10. Not to mention a homegrown player for the Europe.

Oh well looks like it’s finally happening. Any skepticism or criticism of Lafferty ends there for me, time to get behind him and welcome him back

Very good LB in my opinion. Almost certainly overpaid but if we can’t sell him then it’s far better for Rangers that he earns his wage and contributes. It’s a great place to be to have someone like Wallace playing on a Sunday after Barisic playing on the Thursday.

To be fair to him that’s because he doesn’t want to lose his job ?