STUART McCall is off and running.

Get the Rangers manager on to a subject that interests him and words tend to flow at the same rate and volume as the Niagara Falls. The topic on this occasion is football play-offs and McCall has plenty of experiences to share and anecdotes to impart.

Attention to detail is vital in story- telling and McCall rarely disappoints, often veering off on temporary tangents as he digs deep into the memory banks to embroider or embellish his tale with a nugget or two. Over the next few weeks he will garner more play-off stories to add to his collection as Rangers look to work their way into the Premiership via this most enthralling of formats.

McCall's personal record to date isn't great. He played for his beloved Bradford City in 1987/88, just a year after play-offs were introduced into English football. Having narrowly missed out on automatic promotion to the Premiership, it was Middlesbrough who stood in Bradford's way.

McCall already thought he would be leaving for Everton regardless of the outcome but was determined to go out on a high. Unfortunately, it wasn't to be.

"Boro had Tony Mowbray and Gary Pallister at the back and Bernie Slaven up front - a really strong team," he recalled. "We'd already beaten them twice in the league and in the first leg we beat them at home 2-1. I scored in that game and we thought we had them on top of the mantelpiece after beating them three times. But we went up there and Slaven scored in extra time to beat us 2-0 and knock us out.

"It turned out that Colin Harvey from Everton was at the game that night and I got my move to Goodison. I knew the transfer was on but I actually wanted to stay at Bradford in the top league. The Bradford fans were gutted after the game and they were saying to me: 'It's OK for you, you're going to Everton.' But I never felt like that, I wanted to be promoted with Bradford so I was devastated."

His next experience was even more painful in a literal sense. "My other play-off memory is from my time at Sheffield United. We played Wolves in the final at Wembley and I had an ankle injury. I had to have an injection at half time to come off the bench. Neil Warnock was great, he said: 'Right I'm putting you on.' And I'm saying: 'Yeah, but we're 3-0 down, what do you want me to do?' When he told me to warm up, I was saying: 'Are you kidding me?' We had Wolves' number over the season but were 3-0 down in the first half. In the first five minutes [after the break], we got a penalty but Matt Murray saved from Michael Brown. Who knows if that would have changed things?

"Despite all that, I'm a fan of the play-offs. There are so many more meaningful games and less dead matches at the end of the season. It's harsh in England if you finish third on 84 points and the team who were sixth go up via the play-offs with 60 points. But you just have to accept that. I think the play-offs are creating a lot of interest. I think it is great."

McCall was not involved when play-offs returned to the Scottish top flight last year but still got caught up in it all as Hamilton delivered one of the shocks of recent seasons by defeating Hibs on penalties.

"We were away with Scotland getting ready for the Nigeria friendly," he said. "We were in the hotel and couldn't get it on the telly. Obviously Gordon [Strachan] has got a Hibs connection so we were in the staff room and I was on the phone to my boy and he is talking me through the penalties. It was the longest call ever - cost me fifty quid. Then he told me Hamilton had gone through. Poor Gordon had his head in his hands."

Rangers' patchy form over the course of the season will have many doubting whether they have the mettle to win promotion but Darren McGregor, who went up through the play-offs with Cowdenbeath, is confident they will see it through.

"If you are an opposing fan or a neutral, you might think it is a bit rich coming from me but I do think we have the ability and mentality," said the defender. "We have definitely not produced it over the course of the season but if we can focus on these play-off games and take them as they are, we have definitely got the ability to get through them. It would be a great feat if I could be playing in the Premiership with Rangers next season."