A new era began at Ibrox on Tuesday night, Rangers supporters along with the club’s new owners getting the first glimpse of Russell Martin’s team in competitive action.

Three summer signings were handed their debuts from the start – Max Aarons in an unfamiliar left-back role, on-loan Wolves centre-back Nasser Djiga partnering John Souttar, and Joe Rothwell sitting at the base of midfield.

Martin said beforehand he expected to learn how far the squad had come in the four weeks he’s had to work with them and, more importantly, how much they still had to do.

Without question, despite a positive outcome in the Champions League qualifier first leg, significant improvement will be required to make this Rangers team the finished article.

The new manager demands a style of football based on keeping possession but as we saw with his Southampton team at the start of last season in the Premier League, that can cause some nervy moments at the back.

Djiga in particular looked uncomfortable at times trying to play out and only a mixture of good goalkeeping and poor finishing kept Rangers’ clean sheet intact.

That said, there was cause for positivity and when Rangers did manage to play round the Panathinaikos press, they looked impressive, not least when another debutant, Djeidi Gassama, came off the bench to finish a lightning break with the second goal.

Rangers fans would have wanted at least one more to make the second leg more comfortable, but perhaps that would have been greedy and certainly an unfair reflection of a game in which the Greeks looked menacing, at least until they went down to 10 men.

The tie is far from over and Martin will look to use the next seven days to drill into the players further what he is looking for from them, with a friendly against Middlesbrough on Saturday to help bed in how he wants his side to play.

But the performances of Jack Butland, John Souttar, Rothwell and Nico Raskin as well as the fabulous goals from Findlay Curtis and Gassama have helped put Rangers in a promising position as they seek to advance in the competition.