REF McDONALD NOW BLAMED FOR SANTA STORY

NOBODY who I have spoken to in the aftermath of Rangers defeat in Valencia has expressed any view other than, the better team won.

It is a weight of opinion which has been heartening to hear, coming in the wake of the Scottish Champions' 1-1 draw with Inverness Caley at Ibrox, a point, which many Rangers fans agreed Caley were worth.

Too often too many people who claim to support a team in Scotland - and many who are involved at the top level with big clubs - prefer to bleat about external forces costing them.

We have even heard one whinge from a Hearts director about the dangers of match fixing in Scotland. What utter bunkum and balderdash.

But, in recent years this is just the sort of thing we have come to expect from Hearts, a club which has lost its way, and the respect of many.

The recent shennanigans surrounding Dougie McDonald highlight the dangers of such rampant nonsense.

Good grief, one newspaper even ran a story about there being complaints about him appearing on the wireless and revealing there is no such person as Santa Claus.

If that is not ridiculous then perhaps someone out there will tell me just what is?

Thankfully the Champions League trip to Spain by Rangers allowed us to return to football matters. I sometimes wonder if some of the conspiracy theorists ever actually go to a game, or sit quietly at home and watch one on the box, as I did this week.

As usual, the Sky coverage was superb, with anchorman David Tanner providing just the right sort of balance of colour and questions to pundit Neil McCann. Tanner is clearly studying the creme de la creme of football anchormen, Richard Keyes.

The game too was magnificent. A contrast in styles and approach, though anyone who thought Walter Smith merely parked the bus was not paying attention.

In fact Rangers played with a combination of the attacking style they displayed at Ibrox against Bussaspor and the Spanish side, and just a hint of the caution they adopted at Old Trafford.

That much was in evidence when the best chance of the opening spell fell to them, with Stevie Naismith so very unlucky when his fine skill on the run ended with a shot which took the merest deflection and hit the post, coming out rather than going in.

Naismith suffered another frown from the brow of Lady Luck when, with Valencia two goals ahead, he met a Madjid Bougherra cross with a text book downward header which stranded the keeper, but again hit the post, and once more bounced out instead of in.

There was also the moment when Naismith - he had another superb Champions League game - elected to pass to Kenny Miller to set up a chance which Miller should have blasted with his right foot instead of cutting back onto his left , giving Valencia time to close in on him, so that his shot went straight to the keeper.

Those were three big chances - two of them a whisker away from going in - and in a place such as Valencia, that is as many as a team such as Rangers can hope to create.

Valencia's breakthrough goal actually came about, in a way, due to the excellence of goalkeeper Allan McGregor, whose reputation with Rangers and Scotland continues to grow.

Had the keeper not somehow managed to get a hand to the shot, Sasa Papac, on the line, would most certainly have cleared it.

The highlighting of these instances should not be interpreted as a carp against the result. But what they do underline is the narrow margins which exist at the rarified level of the Champions League, and they also serve to illustrate just what Walter Smith means when he says that in these matches Rangers require circumstances to be favourable.

Smith knows such circumstances are unlikely to prevail in his team's favour in every Champions League match, and that even when they do it is not certain Rangers can benefit.

The game against Valencia at Ibrox was the classic example of this when Rangers fine play created enough chances to have won the match. Had one or more of two misses by Miller, two by Naismith and one from Ricky Foster, gone in, the circumstances of the group would have been altered.

For the defeat in Spain would not have holed Rangers chances of reaching the last 16 of Europe's elite tournament, below the waterline.

However, and this is the basic truth of the matter, both Valencia and Manchester United have better teams and bigger squads than Rangers and were always going to prevail in the end.

The Ibrox target was always to first, improve on the two points gathered from last season's inglorious campaign, and then aim for a place in the Europe League.

The first aim has been achieved with five points harvested, and Rangers now stand on the brink of their second target.

Which of course would see them playing in Europe after Christmas is over, and Santa has retreated to Lapland.

Now, just how will Dougie McDonald be lined up to carry the can for that?