Tomorrow will see the first REAL test of Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s managerial acumen as Rangers boss.

Forget Seville, PSV, or even winning the Scottish Cup, taking an injury-decimated Rangers squad to an SPL ground and finding a way to win when the system you’ve used all season is gone and half the players are too is pretty much what it is to be Rangers manager.

See, Ally McCoist, who we’ve a tonne of time for here on Ibrox Noise, was unable to compensate the loss of Steven Naismith in 2011, which was, incidentally, the first article published on Ibrox Noise.

He tried Matt McKay, Sone Aluko, even Juanma Ortiz – nothing could compensate for losing his best player and his Rangers side capitulated quickly even before that following year’s nightmare began.

Gio has the same issue now – he’s not just lost his most reliable player, but he’s lost an entire team of top players, so many so that we basically lack a defence and midfield now.

So our Dutch boss has to find a way to cultivate a win, against a Motherwell who will absolutely smell blood.

If Gio can get a win tomorrow, by hook or by crook, it’s the best endorsement of his credentials, simply because in the face of staggering adversity Gio found a way to get the 3 points and keep the hunt on Celtic.

At the time of writing they’re facing Hibs, we’ll see if it’s a catch up job again tomorrow or an overtake one, but regardless, we just have to keep on winning.

Domestic form, let’s not forget, has actually been decent lately – Goldson had been coming onto a game, and Jack was looking a bit better. All that is gone now, but it’s on Gio to keep the terrestrial momentum going without the very tools that enabled it to happen.

It won’t get his critics off his back, but it will show he can win when the chips are truly down.

Because, lest we forget, 56 is ALL that ever mattered this season.