Not So Naive

Steven Davis believes Rangers' European future this season will be shaped by tonight's Champions League meeting with Valencia at Ibrox.  Walter Smith's side have four points from their first two Group C games against Manchester United at Old Trafford and Bursaspor in Govan and now face back-to-back games against the highly-rated Spanish club. The Rangers midfielder stressed the importance of taking points from a talented team who most people favour to challenge United for top spot. Davis said: "Your home games are the games which will get you through and we have managed to beat Bursaspor. So this game is a massive one in terms of where we are going to go in this group. You want to get as many points on board as soon as possible and so far we have done well but that will mean nothing unless we build on that, and so it is important to get a result tomorrow night.  European nights are great to be involved in. There is usually a great atmosphere, and on the back of a couple of good results to start with, tomorrow night will be a great game and a great atmosphere. But we know what we are up against and we will have to be at our best.''

The Northern Ireland international hopes the Rangers players have dismissed the naivety which he believes cost them so dearly in last season's Champions League campaign. The Light Blues lost all three home group games, including an embarrassing 4-1 defeat by Romanian champions Unirea Urziceni, and finished bottom with two points. However, Rangers have looked more solid in their first two European games this season with a more defensive-minded formation. The former Fulham player said: "It has been a learning curve for many of us. Last year was the first Champions League experience for many of us and we were probably naive in the way we went about it. We seen the group and we were optimistic to begin with but we were probably naive and we were punished for the mistakes that we made. This year the manager has set us up in a different formation to make us harder to beat and within that we have players capable of getting us goals and so far it has worked quite well. Last year we probably tried to do too much (attacking) and we got punished for it. So far we have learned from that but it remains to be seen if we can continue that and get a good result tomorrow night.''