PLAYING a provincial second tier Scottish club in a domestic fixture is, you would have imagined, a more straightforward proposition than taking on a La Liga outfit in the group stages of the Champions League.

Similarly, nullifying the threat posed by Juan Mata, the Spanish midfielder who Manchester United signed last year for a then club record fee of £37.1 million, should be a more intimidating prospect to shackling Danny Carmichael of Queen of the South.

Yet, for Richard Foster, who made his first start for Rangers against Valencia in the group stages of Europe's most prestigious club competition back in 2010 early on in a season-long loan from Aberdeen, the reality is quite different.

The right back is one of a smattering of current players- Kris Boyd, Lee McCulloch, Kenny Miller and Stevie Smith are the only others - who were involved when the Ibrox club competed with the continent's finest.

Those days are a world away from where Rangers, desperately striving to win promotion to the top flight after three tortuous seasons in the lower leagues, are currently. Despite only a handful of years passing, they seem an eternity ago.

However, Foster, available again after a three month layoff with a groin injury, believes there will be more pressure on him in the first leg of the SPFL Premiership Play-Off quarter-final against Queens at Palmerston Park this evening than there was when he faced Valencia.

The opposition will be nowhere near as formidable, the crowd will be much smaller and the media glare far less. The importance of success and the expectation on the players, though, are both far greater.

"It was strange playing in the Champions League at Rangers because you were the underdog," said Foster. "It was a different pressure. You effectively had, not nothing to lose as such, but very little to lose.

"We are expected to go down there and win this game. I know results haven't been great, but we are expected to win and to play well. That does add a bit of pressure.

"I'm not going to say it is going to be a more difficult game than playing in the Champions League. That would be silly to say. But pressure-wise there is more riding on these games than there was in the Champions League games in a way."

Foster, a surprise signing by former manager Walter Smith, not only played in the Champions League with Rangers, he performed well against Valencia, Bursaspor and Manchester United. He also received a league winner's medal after helping his club complete a hat-trick of Scottish title triumphs.

"I just kind of caught up in the adrenalin and the emotion against Valencia and that is probably got me through the game," he said. "I was up against Juan Mata. I didn't really know much about him. It was probably a good thing.

"The crowd was incredible the whole night. It was a good experience and it was great for me. Obviously we drew the game. It was actually disappointing because we maybe could have won it."

The 29-year-old believes completing what has become dubbed by Rangers supporters as "The Journey" via the play-offs this month would be every bit as satisfying as any of those outings or the SPL win he was involved in .

"The club have done unbelievably to get back to the position where we are," he said. "Granted, we wanted to win the league, but we have a chance to get back to the top league, albeit through six games, after three years. I think that would still be a massive achievement for a club who have knocked from pillar to post for the last few years."

The defender, who performed well on his comeback against Hearts at Tynecastle last weekend, appreciates the double header against Queen of the South is far from a formality. Rangers have lost 2-0 and 3-0 in their two previous visits to Dumfries in a frustrating 2014/15 campaign.

He has been impressed with how James Fowler has done since succeeding Jim McInrye as manager back in September and also rates many of his charges, not least winger Carmichael, highly.

"Luckily for me, the one game I played down there I think he (Carmichael) played on the other side," he said. "He's very lively, very quick and very direct. As a full back, that's a recipe for a player you don't want to play against. But if he's playing on my side, I will relish the challenge."

Much has been made of Rangers' aversion to the 5G playing surface at Palmerston Park after their dire performances and poor results on it this term. Foster, though, is adamant it will not present any problems. He will have no qualms playing on the artificial pitch so soon after returning to fitness.

"I don't think the pitch has been a factor," he said. "I just don't think we've played well enough in the games down there. Defensively we weren't good enough in the game I played in. We never really posed any attacking threat to be honest.

"You can say what you like about the pitch, but I don't think it made any difference. If we had put in the same performance on grass the outcome would have been exactly the same.

"Obviously these two games, especially this first one, are huge. It is important to kind of put a bit of a marker down and say 'right, you've beaten us twice on this pitch, but we're not going to make it a third time'."