BATTERED BUT NOT BRUGGE-D

Robbo: Walter's Gers showed spirit in Belgium to fight for survival

- BY FRASER WILSON

CHAOS at one end of the park. Hitting brick walls at the other. It might sound like the story of Rangers' shambolic first leg against Club Brugge but David Robertson remembers when it was also the case over three decades ago - only in reverse.

A time when Walter Smith had a defence so tough it could have been built from the same red stone that dominates the facade of Ibrox's Main Stand.

A time when he had a battering ram No.9, Mark Hateley, capable of causing mayhem for some of the best rearguards in Europe.

And a time when those two things cemented together - along with some magic in midfield - to conjure up a domestic Treble and a run in the first-ever Champions League that saw them come within a point of qualifying for the FINAL.

Funnily enough, that was also the time they last faced a trip to tackle Club Brugge in Belgium. What Gers fans would give for even a bit of that right now.

Shambolic defending and all-too-predictable attacks have left them needing a minor miracle to qualify for Europe's main cup competition.

And they already trail rivals Celtic by seven points so early on in the new Premiership campaign.

At left-back, Robertson was a key man in the side that completed the clean sweep and pushed eventual winners Marseille all the way in the shiny new competition previously known as the European Cup.

Robertson recalls a backs-to-the-wall 90 minutes in the Jan Breydel Stadium where a Daniel Amokachi-inspired Brugge battered at the door - but had to make do with a point from a 1-1 draw after Peter Huistra's leveller.