My '10 minutes to save Rangers career' nightmare came flooding back when I looked into Gio's eyes - Barry Ferguson

It's half-time at Prenton Park and my head is all over the place.

We’re 2-0 down to Shelbourne in Dick Advocaat’s first game as Rangers manager. I’m just 20 and this is supposed to be my big breakthrough as a Rangers player. Giovanni van Bronckhorst is making his debut beside me in midfield.

And as I go back into that dressing room I’m terrified that I’ll not be coming back out for the second half. In fact, I’m half thinking I may never be seen in the first team again. I’m not kidding when I say I had one thought in my head when I got back out onto that pitch: “I’ve got 10 minutes to save my Rangers career!”

We ended up getting out of there with a 5-3 win and dodged what was shaping up to be an absolute disaster. I’m raking this up even though I won’t sleep tonight just thinking about it. It may have been 24 years ago but it still gives me nightmares. And it all came flooding back on Tuesday when I saw the look in Gio’s eyes as his team was being turned over by Union Saint-Gilloise.

I know I couldn’t believe what I was watching, so God knows how my old team-mate was feeling. He seemed completely shocked by the standard of his team’s performance – I certainly was.

But if this is half-time in the tie then at least Rangers still have a chance to redeem themselves – just as we did that night in Birkenhead. Listen, there’s no point trying to sugar coat anything where this performance is concerned. The only positive Gio will take out of it is that the tie is still alive.

Yes, Rangers have a mountain to climb to overturn a 2-0 defeat – but the truth is, it could have been three or four. So, as bemused as Van Bronckhorst will have been feeling on the flight home, he’ll also know his team got away with one.

Not one Rangers