Unfortunately, Kyle Lafferty’s second stint at Ibrox didn’t work out half as well as the first.

The likeable but manic Ulsterman plies his trade these days at newly-promoted Kilmarnock, the Championship side securing promotion at the first time of asking, with the Bold Kyle’s 8 goals helping them along very nicely thank you.

And yesterday he was extolling the virtues of his team, his boyhood heroes and the side he will forever be one of, Rangers.

He is excited about tomorrow’s Euro crunch with Leipzig, and believes this Rangers team can do it – who would bet against them.

But it’s the fan response we were pleased to see.

Despite that dodgy second spell at Ibrox maybe not going as well as he’d have wanted (he blames himself mostly) with just 6 goals and an assist in 30 appearances, the well-travelled striker remains extremely popular with supporters and a few even cheekily wished he was bailing us out of our striker issues tomorrow.

Lafferty really is one of those grossly underestimated Rangers players. Ally McCoist, his former assistant manager, once said how unfair Rangers had been on Kyle, ‘wasting’ him out on the left wing when clearly he was superior as a striker. And when he played as a striker, he was very effective indeed.

He just tried, by his own words, too hard in that second spell and ended up being nervous and lacking conviction.

But his words show everything about what we mean to him.

Even during his ill-fated time under Gerrard, Lafferty said he didn’t mind if he played, just as long as we won. All that mattered to him was the team, a bit like Scotty Arfield and others who have been blessed to be fans who got to play for us.

And even now, he’s talking about ‘we’, about Rangers, his club, and how eager he is for us to get to the final.

He remains one of us, and he’s welcome in Govan any time.