Links between this current Rangers side and the Cup-winners' Cup heroes they are looking to emulate are near impossible to ignore. For Willie Mathieson in 1972, read Sasa Papac in 2008. Culturally, the pair could not be more different.

Mathieson, a Fifer from Cardenden, had worked as an apprentice electrician at Dundonald Colliery when Rangers offered a lucrative escape route from a life down the pits. Papac is a Bosnian international who arrived at Ibrox via Austrian football, the only success of Paul Le Guen's otherwise forgettable reign.

It is on the field of play where the similarities begin and end as Papac looks to replicate Mathieson's role of 36 years ago as the unsung hero in the left-back role. The Scot will be in the City of Manchester Stadium this evening to see if his old club can defeat Zenit St Petersburg to lift the UEFA Cup and he praised Papac for his steady, if unspectacular, contribution to Rangers' European odyssey.

"He Papac plays in the same position as I did and maybe neither of us were the big stars of the team, so I can see the comparison," he said.

"But he's had a tremendous season. After the carry-on with Paul Le Guen I thought that would be the end of him, but he's proved a lot of people wrong and been very consistent.

"He's played very well, especially in Europe, and I would say that, after Carlos Cuellar, he's been Rangers' best player in defence. Also, he's really a centre-half, so he's been playing out of position for some time now, which makes what he's done even more impressive."

Rangers' success this season has been based on the blueprint devised by Willie Waddell. In their run to the Cup-winners' Cup final in Barcelona, Waddell's side matched a miserly defence at home with an ability to score important goals on their travels. It is a formula that has also served Walter Smith and his players well.

"They have done well so far," Mathieson added. "In some ways they've been similar to ourselves as it's been the away games that have mattered.

"We got good results away from home and defended well at Ibrox. But I would say our team was more adventurous. We played more of a 1-3-3-3 formation and tried to get forward a lot. If you watch footage of the final, it's incredible the number of times Derek Johnstone or Dave Smith ended up in the opposition box. That was just our natural style of play."

Mathieson will witness first-hand Rangers' attempt to repeat history by defeating a Russian side to lift a European trophy. "I've managed to get tickets for the final, so I'll be in Manchester cheering them on. I just came back from two weeks in Lanzarote and had 29 emails from people looking for tickets. The demand has been huge.

"I think Rangers have got a chance, although I watched the two Zenit semi-finals against Bayern Munich and they are a fair team. Having said that, they've lost their goalscorer, the big striker Pavel Pogrebnyak, which will be a big blow for them.

"The one to watch for me, though, is Alejandro Dominguez. He looks a smashing player. But I will be keeping my fingers crossed for Rangers. It would be good for the club to get that monkey off their backs and win another European final.

"If they could go on from there to win all four competitions that would be some achievement.

"We struggled in the league in 1972 and finished third, so to be challenging for a European trophy at the same time as a domestic treble is some going."

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