Sir Kenny Dalglish: Steven Gerrard knows how to turn things round at Rangers

Beating Dunfermline 5-0 on Friday night in the Premier Sports Cup shows Rangers are, to an extent, back on track.

However, it won’t take away the pain from the defeat to Malmo in the Champions League qualifier. That will linger for a while yet.

It was a tie the Light Blues should have won. They were 1-0 up at half-time, and the Swedes were down to 10 men.

It looked to be set up perfectly for Steven Gerrard and his players.

But, as was the case in the first leg, they conceded two goals in the space of a few minutes in the second half and never recovered from that.

The chance to play in the most-prestigious club competition around has now gone, and they will just need to get over it.

But there is no need to panic. This is not a crisis.

Steven will know how to handle this situation. He had bad runs at Liverpool, and learned how to get over them to drive the team on.

He will make sure everyone is in the right frame of mind for Thursday night’s Europa League play-off against Alashkert.

When things were successful last season, he never said that it was all down to him.

So when there is a setback, it can’t all be on him, either.

This is a time when a manager needs as much support as possible from his backroom staff.

Steven’s assistant, Gary McAllister, is an experienced campaigner, and he will have been there for Steven in recent days.

But it’s about the players reacting in the right manner.

Friday night was a step in the right direction, but they need to show it again in midweek.

Alashkert will provide a stiff test, and Rangers will need to show a high level of performance to take a lead over to Armenia the following week.