FOR any side, lifting the Scottish Cup is a moment of glory, but for Rangers, adding that trophy to the CIS Insurance Cup, was scant consolation after Walter Smith's side let their grasp of both the UEFA Cup and SPL title slip in the space of a week.
Asked to face Queen of the South less than 48 hours after conceding defeat to arch-rivals Celtic in the chase for the championship, even the comfort of ensuring a Cup double wasn't without drama as the First Division side, seemingly dead and buried
at half-time, stunned the Ibrox side with a quick-fire brace after the interval.
Suddenly, the whole of Hampden was thinking what had previously seemed unthinkable –that having had their hands on four trophies, Walter Smith's side were about to end the season with just one.
A piece of silverware represents a season to remember for most clubs but, particularly in the wake of what had gone before, a single trophy would have only spelled out failure for all concerned.
Having watched Queens' skipper Jim Thomson power home the equaliser only three minutes after Steve Tosh had thrown his side a lifeline, Rangers defender David Weir admitted: "Worries? Yes, there were a lot of worries.
"But they did well to get back into the game and you have to give them credit, but thankfully we came up with the answers."
The question which was being asked at that point was whether Rangers, in their 68th game of a marathon season, had enough left in their tank to prevent one of the biggest Scottish Cup upsets in the competition's long, long history.
The answer came in the shape of Kris Boyd, so often overlooked by Smith throughout this season, the prolific striker regarded as unsuited to play the role of sole frontman in the 4-5-1 formation adopted by the Glasgow outfit this season.
As the Rangers fans' nerves began to fray, Boyd, who had opened the scoring with a tremendous free-kick, sealed victory as he rose above everyone to power home a header for, astonishingly given his lack of action, his 25th goal of the season, winning the Ibrox club their 32nd Scottish Cup final.
The identity of the hero, however, shouldn't have come as a surprise as DaMarcus Beasley, who had added a second for Rangers before the interval, insisted.
The American winger said: "Kris hasn't played as many games as he wanted but he's still our leading goalscorer in all competitions. I'm sure he'd have liked to have played in more matches but he has an unbelievable goalscoring record."
Boyd's goals allowed Rangers to stagger on to victory. Boss Smith admitted he'd fretted over fatigue among his players who were playing in their fifth match in just 11 days, and they also had to deal with the mental torment of having lost two trophies in that period.
Smith said: "I wondered if we had enough to come back again. We've had a lot to overcome and I'm glad we managed to do it. It would have been a shame had we lost out and, although it doesn't take away the disappointment of the last few days, it's a tangible reward."
His Palmerston Park counterpart Gordon Chisholm, however, insisted it was a lack of action which had cost his players dearly, Queens having had to wait a month following the end of the Scottish Football League season before being asked to turn up for their first ever Scottish Cup final. As such, the Dumfries side were unable to take advantage of a clearly nervous and edgy opposition, allowing them to find their feet and take what, at that point, appeared an unassailable lead.
The former Hibs star said: "We never turned up in that first half. I was worried it was going to be four or five and that would have been embarrassing.
"It looked as if that long lay-off affected us, but it was a hell of a lot better in the second half when we showed a belief and hunger. I wish it had gone to extra time. I'd like to have seen what happened."
Queens were thrown a late chance to grant Chisholm his wish only for Robert Harris to drill a free-kick against the defensive wall rather than test Neil Alexander in the Rangers goal, leaving the red, white and blue half of Hampden – as opposed to the blue and white half – to celebrate.
As good as it felt, Beasley, who was celebrating his 26th birthday, admitted more than a tinge of regret.
He said: "We are happy to win two out of four trophies but first and foremost we wanted to win the League title. We are greedy. We wanted to win all four and we felt we were good enough to do so.
"We had our hands on all four so it was disappointing to lose in Europe and then the league, but we took the SPL title to the wire and I think we will come back next season as favourites to win it."
Gordon Strachan's Celtic will, of course, argue otherwise, but former Hearts ace Weir insisted it was only Rangers' punishing schedule which prevented them from stopping their rivals taking the title for the third season in succession.
The 38-year-old said: "There was relief at the end, but the boys are so tired. When you consider what we've been through it's not exactly a surprise. We played in Aberdeen on Thursday night and then played a Scottish Cup final on the Saturday afternoon.
"That's a disgrace. It was only mental strength that saw us through. That's as tired as I've felt. Not just me, everyone. We've had four games in a week – who knows how many in the past month? – so the quality is going to suffer. It's physically impossible to keep doing that. We never complained when we were playing but now you look back and know you've suffered.
"If you look at the second half of every game we've played, there's been a drop and that's the reason. It's been so damaging but it's not our decision. We've just had to fight our way through. We've had no breaks, no help, but we just had to do the best we could."
After the lows of Manchester and Aberdeen, Weir said: "You are always going to have disappointments but we've won two trophies. You can either dwell on what you don't have or feel happy with what you do. It's also important to end on a high.
"If our lasting memory of the season is winning the Scottish Cup it's not a bad one to have."
But as Weir added, it would have been better to be celebrating all four trophies. Smith and his players will no doubt spend their short break wondering "what if?".
The full article contains 1153 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
