STUART McCALL still rejoices in the way one simple text message, just four words long, can encapsulate both the beauty of an understanding woman and the wild celebrations of a thoroughly incomprehensible afternoon.

Ten years ago, more or less to the day, he turned up at Harrogate train station just a little after seven in the morning in his jeans and T-shirt and headed north to Easter Road on the Sunday service with little more than a bag of drink in his hand and a flicker of hope in his heart as Rangers went into their final game of the season against Hibernian.

Celtic, as if you have to be reminded, were two points clear and playing at Motherwell. They were sure to win the Premier League title, until Scott McDonald scored two goals in the last two minutes at Fir Park to create one of the most incredible chapters in Scottish footballing history.

The afternoon remains synonymous with a helicopter changing direction. McCall admits his day did not exactly follow the planned trajectory either.

"I was supposed to get the last train back," he recalled, "but I got a nice little message from the missus saying: 'See you on Tuesday!'.

"She understood."

McCall, the midfield engine of the Rangers side moulded by Walter Smith during his first spell in charge as manager, headed straight for Glasgow after time-up for a tear-up with his pals.

Now the boss of the Ibrox club himself, he remains extremely proud of the efforts he made to get to Easter Road in 2005.

Marvin Andrews, the cult hero who became an iconic figure that day, had told everyone with Rangers sympathies to 'Keep Believing'. McCall certainly did. The same, however, cannot be said of others.

"I think I was the only one of the nine-in-a-row team who was there," he said.

"Bomber, Jukey, The Goalie, Goughie and Coisty were all going, but none of them went. Durranty said he'd just gone onto the coaching side at Rangers and was in the Main Stand, but I'm not sure.

"They didn't think it was going to happen.

"I was quite proud of myself. I got my little carry-out at Harrogate Station in the morning and travelled up. Clink clink.

"As a fan, it was probably on a par with going down to Wembley and seeing Scotland beating England when John Robertson scored the penalty."

McCall was assistant manager to Neil Warnock at Sheffield United at the time of what is now commonly referred to as Helicopter Sunday.

As he recalls, he got creative to get himself some tickets and then swapped some of the best seats in the house for a spot in the Rangers end.

"I had said to Neil the week before that Derek Riordan was getting a lot of rave reviews at Hibs, so maybe I should go up to see him," he smiled.

"I had two Directors Box tickets, but I swapped them. I think I asked the club to just give me any tickets, nothing fancy, and I ended up behind the goal."

Celtic scored early that afternoon through Chris Sutton and, even though Nacho Novo had given Rangers a 1-0 lead over Hibernian just before the hour-mark, the die appeared cast. McCall remembers how he was put under pressure to leave the ground and drown his sorrows in the juicer when all seemed lost.

"It was a little surreal because the actual game itself, after Rangers had gone 1-0 up, was a bit of a nothing game," he recalled. "I went with my brother-in-law and, with five minutes to go, he was saying we should just go.

"I reckoned we might as well see the end of the game as we still had an hour-and-a-half before the train left.

"Then, there was a buzz going round and all of a sudden, everyone was up. Two seconds later, it was the same again."

McCall even appeared on the screen during the live television coverage of the match. He was back on his mobile phone. It was a fleeting moment which proved that using modern technology can have its drawbacks, too.

"I was trying to send text messages to Coisty, Jukey and the rest saying: 'You should have had faith', but they wouldn't send," he laughed. "Then a TV camera panned in on me just as I jabbed the phone unsuccessfully and I was caught saying: 'F*** it!'

"I had been clapping and smiling, but it just caught me at that moment."

The former Motherwell manager returns to Easter Road this afternoon, of course, on business. Rangers carry with them a 2-0 lead from the first leg of the SPFL Premiership Play-Off and memories of a two-goal victory in Leith in March that kickstarted McCall's reign following two draws against the bottom two teams, Livingston and Alloa.

"That game, really, has got us to where we are," stated McCall. "If we hadn't won there, the belief would have maybe eroded. We were on a 9-1 aggregate in the three league games, so getting that victory was important."

Getting a goal is likely to be important today. Should Rangers get on the scoresheet, it seems unlikely they will fail to set up a Play-Off final against McCall's previous employers, Motherwell.

"I think we have scored in 14 of our last 15 games, so, as a manager, you have confidence," said the Rangers boss. "Everyone talks about the first goal. For me, it's the winning goal that counts."

Much has been made of the fact Hibernian had 18 days between the end of the league campaign and the first leg against Rangers to rest and recover. McCall concedes his players struggled in the closing 25 minutes of their victory at Ibrox on Wednesday, but will accept no excuses.

"They have all of June to recuperate," he stated. "They have plenty of time to be tired. The carrot is too big."