Chick Young's view

By Chick Young BBC Scotland football correspondent

For the Rangers hierarchy it was a bit like watching a trapeze artist working without the aid of a safety net.

There's the nervous anticipation as she launches herself into mid-air and then follows the-cover-your-eyes moment as she reaches for the salvation of the only safe exit - the other trapeze, gloriously timed to offer the escape.

Oh, the relief.

So there was Ibrox chief executive Martin Bain and vice-chairman John McLelland at the front of the VIP area in the national stadium in Montenegro fearing the worst as a small band of their club's supporters burst into a verse of what has been tagged, apparently, to be a Northern Irish folk song.

Frankly I don't quite perceive what it has to do with the beautiful game, but if it's street legal then I suppose you can't be kicked out of the Champions' League for singing it.

Rangers players applaud their followers in Montenegro

Except, as we witnessed at Inverness just a few days later, some alleged supporters of the club like a wee add-on to lyrics and melody of The Sash which is definitely objectionable.

Bain looked in horror to the stand behind his goal to the right.

But the relief was palpable when they applied the hand brake at the song's natural end.

It was a moment in time which suggested that maybe - and it is only a maybe - there is hope here that lunatics do have ears.

That they are actually hearing what the club is screaming at them. That Uefa may not feel the need, after all, to don the black hat and condemn the club to Champions' League damnation.

In fact, in a curious twist, on this particular occasion it was the supporters of the host club whose chants pricked up the ears of the match observer.

"How cute," we observed, "as unknown Zeta turned up at Ibrox and played their little hearts out."

"How wrong," we observed, as the sour atmosphere in the second leg turned downright evil.

Montenegro is a nation in nappies, but their fans had the mentality of sixties Alabama.

Damarcus Beasley and Jean Claude D'Archeville were subjected to the most ridiculous racist abuse, monkey chants and the like. It's only a few miles back up the road from white hoods and burning crosses.

Of course, Rangers are a million miles from adopting a holier-than-thou attitude. All of this is just one step on the road to Damascus.

MY SPORT: DEBATE Join the debate on the behaviour of supporters at home and abroad

Now it is Celtic's turn to go through the emotional wringer.

In Moscow, where incidentally, they have a bunch of supporters who won't be winning the Nobel Peace Prize either, the fans of the Parkhead club need to proceed with a little dignity.

It will tough enough on the synthetic surface in Russia without the club having to worry if Uefa will want to cut their grass because of fan behaviour.

Suddenly Rangers look a better bet for the group stages than the Scottish champions.

But in any case Celtic cannot afford to fall on the sword because of supporter behaviour.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Both clubs have done more about the issue of bigotry in the last two decades than was acted upon by a century of previous boards of directors.

But they are only winning battles, not the war.

Let's get the ball out again. Let's talk players and tactics and emotions about great goals and dodgy penalty awards.

And trust me on this one.

Neither the Vatican nor the House of Windsor can offer up a player that would enhance the current squads of Messrs Strachan and Smith.