Steven Davis is going through the process of earning his badges as a coach. But the real life lessons he learned earlier this season - when he was thrown into the burning bin fire of Rangers’ season - may end up being among the most important he’ll ever take on board on his journey into management.
And, who knows, the three points he picked up in the midst of that full blown crisis, in his capacity as a caretaker boss in Paisley back in October, might also yet prove to be crucial now that this season’s title fight is sprawling into the final straight. If they do - and if Rangers somehow manage to complete their recovery by claiming back the league crown over the course of the next few weeks - then Davis will have contributed one last huge achievement for the club he never wanted to leave.
A career ending injury may have kept him on the sidelines until, ultimately, he chose to call it a day in January at the age of 39. But it was from there he oversaw the 3-0 victory away to St Mirren which just might have kept Philippe Clement in with a puncher’s chance when the Belgian took on the task of wading into the mess that Michael Beale had left behind.
Davis is far too modest and unassuming to claim any kind of credit for his small part in the ongoing proceedings. But the fact remains regardless, without that win Rangers would be as good as dead and buried going into the post split dash to the line.
Instead, they return to the same venue on Sunday lunchtime looking to pull level with Celtic at the top of the table - and pile the pressure on the champions before they run out to face Dundee at Dens Park later in the afternoon. Davis almost blushes at the suggestion he might be at least partly responsible for the blockbuster of a scenario which is about to unfold.
“It feels like a different season to be honest,” he said when asked to cast his mind back to being caught up in the eye of that early season storm. “Obviously I started the campaign with the intention of getting back playing. It didn’t pan out the way I wished, but I’m 39 now and I have to appreciate everything that comes with that too. Then the interim manager thing came out of the blue. Those few weeks were a whirlwind, it seems like a different life.”
Beale was bagged after a furious response to a 3-1 defeat at home to Aberdeen at the end of September. At that point the vast majority of a disillusioned Rangers support had given up on any hope that Celtic might be dragged back into any kind of fight.
And it was Davis who was asked to restore some calm days later when he climbed off the treatment table to lead a tailspinning team into an ill-fated Europa League tie in Limassol, which quickly turned into another disaster. In retrospect, he didn’t stand a chance. He recalled through gritted teeth: “It was probably the biggest learning experience of my life. As you get older you start to think what the next chapter might look like.
“Coaching and management is certainly something that interests me, but up until that point I hadn’t really done any coaching, I didn’t have my qualifications. Everybody was on the same page with me going in there at that time and what was being asked. They put a staff around me to help me and the boys.
“With the Limassol game, with the travelling we had, the training time we had on the pitch was very limited. After that we went straight into St Mirren, it was a whirlwind but a great experience for me. It certainly whets the appetite.”
And that’s when Davis notched up his first win as a manager - and a result which provided the incoming Clement with some kind of platform on which to start building an albeit most unlikely comeback. Cheeks reddening again he said: “It was an important game for the boys, we were going into the international break and off the back of that defeat in Cyprus.
“We needed to get back to winning ways. St Mirren were doing really well at that stage - you know the way Stephen Robinson sets them up - and it was always going to be a difficult game. But the boys handled it well. Performance wise we could have been better, but that day it was all about the result and starting to build those little blocks.
“I don’t look at it from a personal point of view, it was mainly for the boys getting that result going into that break. Confidence was low, it had been hit. You saw that with the performance in Cyprus. It was important, as a group, that we tried to turn that around as quickly as possible.
“In any season you happen to have success, titles are sometimes won and lost with small margins. You do look back when you have success, or even when you don’t, and look at games where you think, ‘That was a little bit of a turning point for us,’.
“I don’t know if that’s the case for that specific day, but you need to win games even when you’re not at your best. You are not going to be at your best every week, but in my first spell here with Walter Smith I think that’s something we managed to do really well.
“We didn’t always have the best performance, but we always managed to find a way to win. Obviously the new manager has done that.”
No matter if the dial shifts in their favour or not this weekend, Rangers will hope to cross the city on May 11 with their title hopes still alive and in the knowledge that a win behind enemy lines at Celtic Park could yet set-up a spectacular finale. And, with the bookstop of an Old Firm Scottish Cup Final still to come, a part of Davis wishes he was still in there, with his boots on.
He said: “When it comes to those games, those are the ones you definitely miss the most. Without doubt Walter was a great motivator, not that you needed much motivation going into the Old Firm.
“He had that ability to get everyone focused, bring that to the group and have the siege mentality at times. Everyone would run through a brick wall for Walter anyway in terms of respect and the aura he had. It was an honour to play under him.”
