SIX players in the SPFL Premiership Team of the Year, voted for by the members of the Scottish branch of the Professional Footballers' Association, offers a fair reflection of the campaign enjoyed by Celtic.

Likewise, the absence of anyone from Rangers in the 11 selected from the Championship tells its own particular story of the season on the other side of Glasgow.

The Ibrox club will, of course, fit somewhere into the fabric of the end-of-season play-offs and may yet scramble their way into the top flight, but their journey since August has been underwhelming in the extreme and offers little reason for optimism as the cut-throat business of knockout football beckons.

Have Rangers really been so below-par that none of their players can be considered worthy of special mention from their fellow professionals? Frankly, yes.

Lewis Macleod may have earned a spot on the team sheet had he built on a fine start to the season and the eight goals scored from midfield before leaving for injury and obscurity at Brentford in an £850,000 January transfer.

Darren McGregor has probably done enough to earn pass marks in his debut season at Rangers, particularly as he has been asked to spend much of it in an alien position, but he certainly cannot have harboured hopes of pipping David Gray of Hibernian to the right-back slot in the Team of the Year. Nicky Law has also been a regular, but concedes himself that consistency has been a problem amid the tumult of another chaotic spell in that damaged club's recent history.

There is no-one else to talk about.

That Hearts have provided six players for the Championship's All-Star 11 is no surprise. Hibernian have also done well to have three of their men included, but who would have imagined Rory Loy of Falkirk, one of many young players to have left Murray Park with a sense of disenfranchisement, and Gavin Reilly of Queen of the South securing starting berths in its imaginary forward line ahead of the likes of Kenny Miller and the lesser-spotted Kris Boyd?

In the Premiership, it could be asked whether there is maybe one Celtic player too many and one too few from Aberdeen. Would Ryan Jack, currently being mentioned as a transfer target for Everton, have been worthy of a place in midfield? Could Niall McGinn have been squeezed in there somewhere?

Graeme Shinnie is the only Caley Thistle player to merit inclusion, no doubt reinforcing the view in Inverness that the club remains unheralded and perhaps even disrespected by a game concentrated largely around the Central Belt.

Premiership: Craig Gordon (Celtic); Shay Logan (Aberdeen), Jason Denayer (Celtic), Virgil van Dijk (Celtic), Graeme Shinnie (Inverness Caledonian Thistle), Stuart Armstrong (Celtic), Scott Brown (Celtic), Johansen (Celtic); Nadir Ciftci (Dundee United), Adam Rooney (Aberdeen), Greg Stewart (Dundee).

Championship: Neil Alexander (Hearts); David Gray (Hibs), Alim Ozturk (Hearts), Danny Wilson (Hearts), Lewis Stevenson (Hibs); Scott Allan (Hibs), Morgaro Gomis (Hearts), Jamie Walker (Hearts); Gavin Reilly (Queen of the South), Rory Loy, (Falkirk), Osman Sow (Hearts).

League One: Rab Douglas (Forfar Athletic); Mark Russell (Greenock Morton), Stuart Malcolm (Forfar Athletic), Frank McKeown (Stranraer), Paddy Boyle (Airdrieonians); Alan Trouten (Brechin City), Jamie Stevenson (Peterhead), Willie Gibson (Stranraer); Gavin Swankie (Forfar Athletic), Declan McManus (Morton), Bobby Barr (Brechin City).

League Two: Neil Parry (Albion Rovers); Shaun Rooney (Queen's Park), Michael Dunlop (Albion Rovers), Marvin Andrews (Montrose), Ross Dunlop (Albion Rovers); Bobby Linn (Arbroath), Darren Miller (Queen's Park), Paul Woods (Queen's Park); Shane Sutherland (Elgin City), Peter Weatherson (Annan Athletic), Simon Murray (Arbroath).