IF you think back to this time last year, Rangers went into the Premiership campaign on a real downer and with a cloud hanging over the club after the defeat to Progres Niederkorn.

This weekend, Steven Gerrard’s side start off on league duty with a couple of European wins under their belt and everyone is looking forward to the new season.

Pedro Caixinha had the fans on his back from the off and there was no feelgood factor around Rangers. Now there is a real difference.

The supporters have been starved of a reason to be optimistic and excited for a long time and that is why they are in such good form and high spirits these days.

They are turning up in huge numbers and they have a feeling that they could achieve something this season with Steven Gerrard as manager.

Rangers had to avoid a repeat of the Progres result and they have done that by getting through the first two ties against Shkupi and Osijek and now everyone can’t wait to go up to Aberdeen on Sunday and start in the Premiership.

Osijek are a side that most people have probably never heard of until the last fortnight but they proved over two legs that they are a good team.

They were quick, their passing was good, they got the ball forward and Allan McGregor had to make a couple of decent saves to stop them from scoring. Unfortunately, he had no chance with the goal late on that denied Rangers a sixth successive clean sheet.

Rangers showed real resilience and a will to win and they seem to have bonded as a unit which, for a team that has only been together a few weeks, is very impressive.

You can’t just throw a team together and expect it to click. It is going to take time and there are going to be highs and lows along the way.

The most important thing on Thursday night was the outcome in terms of the tie and that is what will matter to the manager and the supporters.

That will be the same when we face Maribor in the next round as well and the fans are now looking ahead to those two games and fancying their chances of getting to the play-off stages.

Every game is different and has its own difficulties and you can’t read anything into the fact that Maribor were battered home and away by Liverpool last season.

They have got a good record against Scottish clubs over the years and they are an experienced European outfit so Rangers can’t take anything for granted over the next fortnight.

Hopefully they will have learned from the Osijek fixtures and we will see an improvement in the next two games. There will have to be because the levels always go up the further you get into a competition.

I think it is a very even game and Rangers will need to take something over there. Getting a clean sheet at Ibrox will be so important for us.

Maribor will be looking at Rangers and thinking that we have struggled over the last few years and that we are not of the same standard. They will fancy their chances.

But there is no reason why Rangers can’t go through and make it into the fourth qualifying round and I am sure the manager and players will be optimistic about the tie.

We have seen the side getting better week on week so far and that will be pleasing for the manager, especially when he looks at the options he has now got in the squad.

There is a far higher standard of player there now and, crucially, they seem to have the right mentality about them as well.

Now, it is the time for them to show what they are all about on the park and prove why they have been brought here.

I don’t want to see anyone making big claims about what they can achieve this season.

I want them to do their talking on the park and get on with the job in hand. As the manager says: Let’s go.