Yet again Rangers found themselves two goals down and had to rescue the situation late on against Dundee
It was another frazzled Ferguson who once famously blurted out the line, “Football, bloody hell!”
That stunned sentiment fell from the lips of a certain Manchester United manager just moments after he’d watched his team come back from the dead to claim Old Trafford immortality with victory in the 1999 Champions League Final.
Saturday night’s events at Dens Park had nowhere near the significance of that historic triumph but you can bet for Barry Ferguson, he’d have known exactly how Sir Alex felt on that incredible evening at the Nou Camp.
As the Rangers caretaker gaffer walked wearily out of the cramped Dundee press room after a pulsating, bonkers 95-minute endurance test that had seen his side battle back from 3-1 down with just quarter of an hour remaining to win, it was suggested to him that he might find a few extra grey hairs sprouting through his dark quiff.
“It’s not grey hairs I’m worried about, it’s the f****ing heart-attacks…” The former skipper has certainly seen his ticker skip a few beats since being called back to the club he loves.
He’s been in charge for six games and has seen them sink two goals down four times already. This time, like his dugout debut at Rugby Park, Rangers recovered to win.
But boy, did the Light Blues put their manager and the fans who followed them up the A9 through the wringer. The Rangers board spent Saturday morning sending out warnings as they urged the travelling Ibrox faithful to shush the singing of “illegal songs”.
By the end, they’d have been just as concerned by the criminal defending that continues to make these encounters with the Premiership’s lesser lights such nerve-shredding, stomach-churning occasions.
Just as was the case a fortnight earlier at Celtic Park, a late show was required to claim the points but Ferguson was taking nothing like the satisfaction he drew from that derby win at Dens as his side maintained a 13-point deficit on Brendan Rodgers’ champions-elect.
He scorned his side for slipping into “bad old habits” and there were plenty of examples.
With one member of the Ibrox squad in particular, the Rangers faithful are struggling to work out just where they stand with him right now. One minute he’s the hero, the next he’s being told where to go. Forget Cyriel Dessers, Jack Butland is quickly emerging as the real enigma of Ibrox this season.
It was only a couple of weeks since the Englishman’s shootout rescue act spared Rangers defeat to Fenerbahce as they stormed through to the Europa League quarter-finals.
But his clanger at Dens under the low evening sunshine was every bit as inexplicable as the howler he made at home to Motherwell earlier this month.
Speaking last Thursday, the big keeper held his hands up to “some moments I’d like to have done better” as he acknowledged his erratic form this term.
He certainly couldn’t have done much worse as Joe Shaughnessy nodded the tamest of headers his way 19 minutes in. Already a goal down after Simon Murray’s 90-second opener, Butland somehow let the ball bounce off his chest before Shaughnessy bundled home after a failed rebound attempt from Murray.
Rangers recovered from that blow – as well as a Scott Tiffoney strike in 62 minutes that had restored Dundee’s two-goal lead following a Shaughnessy own goal just before half-time – to claim victory.
Ferguson insisted it was a result his team would not have got six weeks earlier, presumably he meant when Philippe Clement was struggling to get any signs of life from a squad which at that point looked dead behind the eyes.
But it’s also fair to say that the Butland blunder was a gaffe he wouldn’t have made last season.
Then, the keeper fully deserved his “Super Jack” sobriquet having single-handedly saved the team from even greater disasters under the failed leadership of Michael Beale.
These days, Butland is looking more and more like a mere mortal. And it now raises a question for Ferguson or whoever takes over permanently next season – is Super Jack now sellable?
Clement insisted last summer he was the one man Rangers could not afford to replace having knocked back a big-money bid from Nottingham Forest last January.
But with the former Stoke, Crystal Palace and Man United stopper one of the club’s highest earners, there might have to be a decision made on whether Rangers can find someone more reliable. Reliability, however, isn’t just an issue for Butland.
James Tavernier was caught napping as Murray got a run to hook home from Fin Robertson’s second-minute corner. But at least the skipper made amends, forcing Shaughnessy into the own goal that got Rangers going before the break and then rifling home a screamer with 15 minutes left.
And when Tom Lawrence levelled with a hit ever bit as good as his captain’s on 81 minutes, the comeback victory was on for Rangers.
They just had to make sure they took their big chance. That was easier said than done with a striker who had tried and failed to net with his nine opening attempts.
Say what you want about Cyriel Dessers’ technical ability but if he had the finishing prowess to match his mental strength he would be operating at a far higher level than Rangers.
Weaker characters would have crumbled after seeing so many chances spurned by Dees keeper Trevor Carson.
But Dessers refused to give in as he came back to finally bury his 10th attempt from another Tavernier assist. With 45 goals in 100 appearances, the 30-year-old is ticking by at a rate of almost a goal every other game.
Maybe if he’d taken a few more, though, it might not have been such a bloody hellish campaign for the Ibrox faithful.
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