BELIEFS, funny things to be sure, able to make our species deny science, wage war, achieve great feats but also stick to a script, denying all evidence to the contrary. See climate change for an example.

But before we travel down that road let us pop our heads into the doorway of Dortmund. As the men in the sulphur-coloured jerseys took to the field on Thursday little did they know they were descending into their own 95-minute Hell.

Demons are generally depicted in red, to Germany they brought their away kit. Sporting blue they tortured the Germans, tearing the flesh from Dortmund’s bones, Rangers were ravenous.

If Hieronymus Bosch ever thought to introduce football to his Hellscape paintings, then this could have been his masterpiece. The yellow wall was graffitied with ‘RFC was here,’ daubed in the blood of the home side before being reduced to rubble.

In the land of Gegenpressing, this was Gio’s-gers-pressing. A high-octane performance where Rangers outfought and then outthought what is an exceptionally talented Bundesliga side.

First to provide some Teutonic torment was James Tavernier with a coolly taken penalty after VAR correctly ruled defender Dan-Axel Zagadou had handled in the box. It was no more than Rangers deserved and undoubtedly increased the teams’ belief.

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It took just another three minutes for that belief to turn into something more tangible as Alfredo Morelos bundled in from close range. John Lundstram added a stunning third before a rather fortuitous fourth gave Morelos another scratch on the scoresheet.

There was also time for two great counterstrikes from Jude Bellingham and Raphaël Guerreiro. Special mention goes to Ryan Kent for the pandemonium he continued to cause.

Rangers had taken the opportunity afforded them from the omission through injury of Dortmund talisman Erling Haaland to turn the evening into a Rangers-themed ha-ha-land.

Enter beliefs but hold for a final word from one of Germany’s favourite sons, the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche: “Sometimes people don’t want to hear the truth because they don’t want their illusions shattered.”

With many a high-profile Scottish media personality semi-silent prior to Rangers’ trip to Tannadice, you would be forgiven for thinking the Dortmund result had been inflicted on Scotland’s champions and not delivered by them.

90-odd minutes later, two points dropped, and the usual alarm bells were being rung (including by some more reactionary elements of the Rangers support). It is fair to say in the court of Scottish football commentary there are more than a few jesters willing to caper around to others’ tunes.

Inalienable fact number one; all teams drop points. Fact two, you can play well and come away with nothing. Not familiar with these facts? You have never watched or played a game in your life then.

After a tawdry first 45 minutes in which Rangers seemed to have left their energy reserves in the check-out at Glasgow Airport (falling behind in the process to a Ross Graham header), the second-half performance was enough to make a believer of most.

Rangers absolutely dominated Dundee United, tracked them, caught them, caged them but could not do enough to mount their head on the wall. Joe Aribo wounded them with a lovely worked finish but the Ibrox men allowed their opponents to slink off into the undergrowth with a priceless point.

Rangers ended the match with 74% possession, 30 total shots but crucially only three on target. Although a lot of credit must go to United’s collective desire to defend there is no doubt the combination of poor finishing, decision making and a decline-to-dance from lady luck played their part.

But that is weather and at what point does it turn into climate? Rangers are still title-favourites in my opinion but their away form is starting to look climate-esque. Giovanni van Bronckhorst has overseen a drop in points on the road to Aberdeen (1-1), Ross County (3-3), Celtic (3-0) and now United.

The intangible was the manner of the defeat at Celtic Park.

The tangible? Four games and nine points dropped out of 12. Van Bronckhorst and his management team need to understand that weather is short but climate long. If they do not arrest this slide they may find an ice-age sweeps into the Southside of Glasgow. Edmiston Drive is no place to find yourself without shelter.

Progression against Dortmund, who still have more than enough to take the tie away from Rangers, would be a great morale booster but short-term. The league championship, and its access to the Champions League, is all-important this season. Rangers cannot afford to mistake the post-Dortmund weather for the SPL climate.

This squad can still inspire belief, perhaps they just need to believe in themselves.

Tommy is the managing editor of This Is Ibrox.

You can follow them on Twitter @Thisisibrox