WALTER Smith last night accused his players of lacking pride in their performance and exposing Rangers to ridicule after they sustained the most humiliating defeat of their European history.
The dismayed Rangers manager accepted that his team deserved to make their exit from the European competition at the second qualifying round stage of the Champions League as they lost 2-1 to FBK Kaunas in Lithuania.
Just 11 weeks after the
y played in the Uefa Cup final in Manchester on the back of a record-breaking 19-match European odyssey, the Ibrox club's campaign for this season is over after just one tie and before the new SPL has even kicked off.
Rangers and Smith will now come under intense pressure to deliver domestically, just as Celtic were able to do three years ago when they crashed out of the Champions League at the same stage to Artmedia Bratislava.
Smith said: "It is an easy excuse to say we are suffering a hangover from last season. Personally I don't go with that. You could say that in pre-season, but once you get to a competitive level you are looking for the pride and determination that we had last season.
"In terms of the consequences of not going through, it is as disappointing a night as I have had in Europe.
"After reaching a European final last season, it is going from the sublime to the ridiculous. It is a massive blow in every aspect for the club and we just have to face it. I don't think we deserved anything more from the game. If it had stayed at 1-1 and we had gone through on away goals we would have considered ourselves fortunate.
"Our performance level wasn't anywhere near that of last season and that has been a feature throughout our preseason. We didn't have the necessary edge."
Smith did not accept that injuries to key men Barry Ferguson and Carlos Cuellar, in addition to not being able to further strengthen his squad, could be regarded as mitigating factors. He said: "I still think we had enough in our squad to get through this tie. We can only look at ourselves. Never at any time, even when we led 1-0, did we look comfortable.
"We were going to strengthen the squad anyway but we will now have to see what transpires over the next few days when we take in the ramifications of not having European football."
Vladimir Romanov, the Hearts owner, relished last night's success for the Kaunas club he also bankrolls. Linas Pilibaitis, a former Hearts player, scored the winning goal and Romanov celebrated at full-time by waving a Hearts scarf.
Jose Couceiro, the Portuguese coach of Kaunas who was appointed by Romanov less than a month ago, said: "Rangers are a big club and Kaunas are only small. The championship in Lithuania is not very strong but congratulations to my players. They have worked fantastically well since I have been here.
"For us the danger was the first leg in Glasgow but we got a good result there and the team always believed it was possible to go through. Counter-attacks were the key to our victory. We played very well defensively and didn't give Rangers any space."
Fans ready to grill Murray, Smith and Bain after 'disgrace'RANGERS supporters were in disgruntled mood following last night's Champions League exit at the hands of Kaunas, with fans' spokesman Jim Templeton describing the performance as a "disgrace".
The Clydesdale Bank Premier League campaign has not even started and already last year's Uefa Cup finalists have crashed out of Europe. And Templeton, president of the Rangers Supporters Assembly, says that club owner Sir David Murray, manager Walter Smith and chief executive Martin Bain will be brought to book at a pre-arranged question-and-answer session at the club's training complex Murray Park on Friday.
"You could call it a disaster but you could also say that the second-half display was a disgrace," he said. "They looked clueless against what was hardly a world-class team.
"The loss of money from going out of Europe is one thing but fans want to see what is on the park and the evidence of what we seen tonight, there wasn't much. And if you are honest, there were signs of that at the end of the season.
"There is another couple of weeks before the transfer window closes and if ever there was evidence that we needed something, especially in the middle of the park, then tonight was it.
"There is a gaping hole there and it needs filled.
"Our agm is this week and there will be fans coming from all over the world. There will be a question-and-answer session at Murray Park on Friday morning with Sir David Murray, Walter and Martin Bain.
"That should be interesting."
Templeton insists Smith will survive the inevitable calls for his head. He said: "It's a bit early for that. You have to consider what he achieved last season when we were going for the quadruple.
"There is no need to tell him what a disaster this is, he went through similar during his first time at Ibrox. We are just looking for signs of progression but there hasn't been any."
David Edgar, spokesman for the Rangers Supporters Trust, asked for leadership from the top at Ibrox in the wake of what he called "a disaster of a result".
Defeat came less than three months after Smith's side reached the Uefa Cup final in Manchester, where they lost to Zenit St Petersburg.
Edgar said: "Let's not sugar-coat it, this was a disaster of a result. The fans are more upset than I can remember.
"The feel-good factor from Manchester has totally and utterly gone. It's hard to see where we go from here and it's down to the people in charge to show us.
"The fear is that players will be sold to balance the books and the fans simply will not stand for it. We are totally gutted."
It is not just Rangers supporters who were left stunned by last night's result. Motherwell manager Mark McGhee believes the Scottish game as a whole will suffer from the Ibrox club's shock European exit.
"I really can't believe it," said McGhee, whose own team will begin their Uefa Cup campaign next month following their third-place finish in last season's Premier League.
"I didn't think Rangers would have an easy time over there but I just couldn't envisage them going out tonight.
"It's unbelievable. It puts a dampener on everyone."
McGhee said that football fans throughout the country look forward to seeing the Old Firm play glamour matches against the some of best teams in Europe and is disappointed that Smith's men have fallen at the first hurdle.
"Scottish football looks forward to Celtic and Rangers' Champions League campaigns, the TV, the nights at Ibrox and Parkhead," McGhee told BBC Five Live.
"For them to be robbed of that immediately it just lessens the whole season ahead."
The full article contains 1193 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
