Last night, he walked off the Eastlands pitch with a far heavier heart, bearing a pain which may take even longer to ease.

The moment Ferguson had dared to dream of these past few heady weeks slipped agonisingly away from him, the gleaming Uefa Cup instead passing into the hands of the team now coached by the man who had recognised him as a born leader of Rangers.

Dick Advocaat has always regarded Ferguson as a player capable of gracing the biggest occasions in football, but the Dutchman's slick Zenit St Petersburg outfit denied him the chance to follow John Greig into Ibrox legend by captaining Rangers to victory in a European final.

Ferguson himself regarded last night as, in all probability, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Perhaps one day he will be able to look at his runners-up medal with a sense of pride, recognising at least that his return to this stadium was the firmest possible evidence that he had made up for his error of judgement in leaving Rangers in the first place.

On that November afternoon back in 2004, Ferguson was as committed a performer as ever, helping Blackburn Rovers earn a Premiership point at Manchester City's magnificent new ground.

All the glitz and glamour of the self-styled 'greatest league in the world', however, had failed to live up to the expectations Ferguson held when he made his £7.5million transfer from Rangers to the Lancashire club in August 2003.

He made his move the day after leading Rangers into the group stage of the Champions League with a qualifying round triumph in Copenhagen.

At the time, Ferguson had convinced himself that he had achieved all he could with the club he supported as a boy and with whom he rose to become a 'treble' winning captain.

But it was only when Ferguson left Ibrox that he fully appreciated just what the club meant to him. No amount of trips to Old Trafford, Anfield or Stamford Bridge could match the fulfilment he experienced as a Rangers player.

He duly agitated for a return to Ibrox, a request eventually accepted with reluctance by Blackburn manager Mark Hughes in January 2005. The season would end with Ferguson winning his fourth SPL title, his personal world seemingly restored to its axis.

Two years later, it almost fell apart once more when he was dramatically stripped of the captaincy and placed on the transfer list by Paul Le Guen.

But if legendary Rangers player and manager Willie Waddell's maxim that no man is bigger than the club is true, the ill-starred Le Guen discovered that Ferguson comes closer than most to disproving it.

Restored to favour and form by Walter Smith, this season has seen Ferguson leading Rangers in record-breaking style. Last night was his 82nd European appearance for the club in a campaign which has seen him surpass the previous landmarks of David Narey for one Scottish club and the peerless Kenny Dalglish's overall record for a Scottish player.

He missed just one of Rangers' unprecedented run of 19 matches in Europe, suspension forcing him to sit out the first leg of the Uefa Cup semi-final against Fiorentina.

In what has been a relentlessly demanding season, only central-defensive rock Carlos Cuellar has played more games for Rangers than their captain. The recuperative powers and endurance of the midfielder, who has played through a painful ankle injury with the same kind of grit which characterised his famous predecessor Greig, was warmly praised by Smith on the eve of last night's game.

It was his 57th of a marathon campaign and it began nervously for the 30-year-old whose demeanour as he led his team out onto the City of Manchester Stadium pitch betrayed a clear sense of how significant this occasion was in defining his whole career. Ferguson's first couple of passes were unusually hesitant, the second putting team-mate Brahim Hemdani in serious difficulty and allowing Zenit to break at pace through Konstantin Zyrianov and create a chance for Andrei Arshavin which their playmaker should have done better than drill wide of Neil Alexander's post.

For most of a first half which saw Rangers on the back foot for lengthy spells, Ferguson was restricted to the unforgiving but crucial role of harrying his opposite number, Zenit captain Anatoliy Tymoschuk, to try and stem the tide towards Alexander's goal.

Ferguson was at the heart of Rangers' most incisive move of the opening 45 minutes, however, linking cleverly with fellow midfielder Kevin Thomson to spring Jean-Claude Darcheville into space on the left edge of the Zenit penalty area.

The French striker's cutback appeared set to present Ferguson with a clear sight of goal, only for left-back Radek Sirl to execute a terrific covering tackle.

As nominally the most advanced of the five midfielders deployed by Smith, it was Ferguson's task to try and support Darcheville as much as possible. He remained as committed to a forward position as possible and two minutes before half-time provided the Rangers supporters with fresh encouragement when he dispossessed Igor Denisov and fed the ball to Thomson.

The subsequent set-piece, awarded for Denisov's desperate attempt to redeem his error, was smashed straight into the defensive wall by Thomson, but Rangers had at least posted a reminder they could pose a threat.

Ferguson did so again at the start of the second half, a close-range shot smothered by Zenit goalkeeper Vyacheslav Malafeev as Rangers hinted at a more progressive second half.

For once, however, their admirable resilience and indomitable spirt simply wasn't enough. Igor Denisov's 72nd-minute breakthrough strike gave Zenit the lead they merited and, while Ferguson urged his team-mates on in desperate pursuit of an equaliser, Zyrianov's stoppage-time goal ensured heartbreak for Rangers and their inconsolable captain.

No surprises but strategy fails to derail zest of Zenit

LAST night's match organisers had the novel idea of getting mascots to line up in tactical formation just before the teams took to the pitch.

This was meant to be a living guide to spectators, live and on TV alike, about the shape the sides would take, which would have been fine, only for some strange reason the kid playing Steven Whittaker lined up alongside Jean-Claude Darcheville in a Rangers 4-4-2. In the game itself, Whittaker was on occasion the most advanced midfielder, but the reality was that Walter Smith's team were again playing the 4-5-1 which had served them so well.

Given the merit of their defence, and the gritty manner in which they had played to upset the odds in previous rounds, Rangers' approach to the game came as no surprise.

Zenit St Petersburg's attacking prowess was evident in the way they tore Bayern Munich apart with four goals in the second leg of their semi-final. Rangers knew the last thing they could afford to do was allow their Russian opponents the space in which to show off their ability, so closing the game down was the order of the evening for Smith's team. Doing so successfully depended on the back four and the midfield alike all showing maximum concentration, and the strategy was almost undone in the fifth minute when Brahim Hemdani conceded possession and allowed Konstantin Zyrianov to set up a chance from which Andrei Arshavin shot narrowly wide.

Zenit were playing in an attack-minded 4-3-3 formation, which could quickly adapt to 4-5-1 as the occasion demanded. Gifted enough not to bother with over-elaborate tactical plans, they deftly changed the pace of the game, believing their innate ability would carve an opening for them.

Fiorentina had done the same in the semi-final, and had paid for that apparently unshakeable self-belief when Rangers held them to a scoreless draw then won on penalties, but Zenit were playing with far more speed and purpose than the Italians had displayed. They appeared intent on winning the game in 90 minutes, and enjoyed the bulk of possession in the opening 45.

In the second half Rangers changed their approach, opening up their game and establishing attacks more quickly. Such an approach was more likely to create scoring opportunities, but also left more space for Zenit to exploit. And they duly did just that in the final 17 minutes.

STUART BATHGATE