The Gers’ European journey came to an end with a 2-1 defeat in Lisbon this evening, but Docherty said she was proud of every player for their effort over the two-legs.
Speaking to RangersTV at full-time, she said: “I just want to first and foremost say that I am proud of every single player who was on the pitch tonight. The girls who came on and the staff as well, we have really shown that we are a credit to the club, we did everything we could.
“Benfica are a fantastic side, you can't deny that but we went toe-to-toe with them until the end and I am really proud of the girls' performance.
“We were competing against a top class opponent and for us it has shown how far we have come as a club.
“We spoke about it in the dressing room, three years ago there was only Amy [McDonald] and Brogan [Hay] who were in the squad so to see how far we have come as a group of players is phenomenal and it doesn't end there. We want to keep going.”
Looking back on the run in the competition, which included Round 1 victories over PAOK and Ferencvaros, Docherty believes the squad can use the experience positively moving forward in the league this season.
She continued: “It has been fantastic, I feel like we have really grown into the competition. Of course we have gone out tonight but even when you look back to the competition in Greece where we managed to see out matches.
“We were up against it against Benfica but I thought we really showed the determination to score against them again and we just didn't manage to see it out.
“We are obviously disappointed to lose the game because when you play for a massive club like Rangers you are always expected to win so we are disappointed from that aspect but we can take positives going into the league now.
“I think when we go back to the league we can really show that we are a top class opposition ourselves and that will be something we will be looking to do when we go back into the league.”
ㅤ
ㅤ