Blame would lie with us alone admits Smith

WALTER Smith will direct his players no further than the nearest mirror at Pittodrie tonight if their epic quest to become Scottish champions for the first time in three years ends in disappointment.

The Rangers manager is in no doubt his team's unexpected progress to the Uefa Cup final impacted adversely on their attempts to relieve Celtic of the title, but he will not be seeking refuge in excuses of any sort if the silverware does not pass into the hands of Barry Ferguson this evening.

The notional lead Smith's men held over the reigning champions has been gradually eroded in recent weeks, with the seven points dropped in the immediate aftermath of the Uefa Cup semi-final matches against Fiorentina and final against Zenit St Petersburg regarded as the most damaging by the Ibrox manager.

While controversy has surrounded the schedule of matches demanded of Rangers by the SPL over that period, however, Smith insists his players are the exclusive architects of a situation which sees them almost certainly needing Celtic to slip up against Dundee United at Tannadice if the title is not to slip away from them at the last.

"It would obviously be a huge disappointment if we don't win the league," said Smith, "but we had the advantage going into the last three games and lost it, so we can only blame ourselves for that.

"Having to play the huge matches we had in Europe has had an effect. I'm not using that as an excuse, but it has led us into the situation where we lost our advantage.

"We dropped three points at Celtic Park in our first game after the first leg of the semi-final against Fiorentina and that would have been a difficult place to go regardless.

"We lost two points at Easter Road after the second leg against Fiorentina, then another two points at Motherwell after the final. That's been a strain which has gone through our results in recent weeks. But once we got to that stage in Europe, we wouldn't have given that experience up.

"It is a situation which was mirrored before when Celtic reached the final in 2003. The problem we had is that we never thought we would get to the final in the first place.

"We were never in the position everyone thought we were in after we beat Celtic at Ibrox in March. Everyone was counting our games in hand as victories, when two of them were at Celtic Park. I never really counted them, that would have been a bonus.

"If we don't win the title, it will be the same as the Uefa Cup final, you can't take away the disappointment of losing it. But disappointment is the only thing you are guaranteed in football and I've told that to the players. They have got to handle it. But we are not at that stage yet. We have to look positively at (the game]."

That outlook will not take into account what Smith regards as both unrealistic and improper suggestions that his players will set out with expectations of the kind of victory which overcomes Celtic's superior goal difference.

He does feel, however, that a situation which sees his team currently having scored more goals than Celtic, despite being four worse off in terms of overall goal difference, gives the lie to persistent condemnation of them as a negative side.

"It is ironic we have been looked on as a defensive team, yet we have scored more goals than anyone else in the league at the moment," observed Smith. "It is Celtic's better defensive record that has given them a better goal difference.

"All this talk of goal difference is disrespectful to other teams. I don't know anyone who can set out a team to score six or seven goals. What do you do, throw all your strikers on? Then you lose goals at the other end.

"They asked Jean-Claude Darcheville after our game at St Mirren on Monday night if we could score six goals at Aberdeen and he said 'yes', but he also said we could also score just one. They are now using that in Aberdeen as a sign of disrespect, because it suits them to wind everything up. But talk about goals is secondary to winning the game.

"Both ourselves and Celtic have still got a bit to do just to win the games. We have already dropped a couple of points at Pittodrie this season and it was actually one of our better performances. We've also lost and drawn at Tannadice, so both places are difficult to go to.

"Any team which gets to this stage of the season with a chance to win the championship has to have put in an awful lot of hard work. Celtic will feel exactly like ourselves at the moment."

Should Rangers triumph tonight, Smith believes it would arguably be a more significant title win than any of the seven he presided over during his first spell in charge of the club.

"I don't say this for any psychological edge or anything else," he said, "but I thought if we just managed to mount a better challenge to Celtic this year, then that would be a step forward for us. We have come a bit further than I thought we would.

"We lost three games in the first quarter of the season, but you are going to get that inconsistency with a new team. Then we went on a long unbeaten run and that consistency came much sooner than I expected. I thought then we would have a chance of winning the league.

"By nature of the fact we were always the team in the ascendancy when I was manager first time around, it would rate as the most difficult to win if we do it. Celtic now have the mantle that Rangers had when I was in charge previously."

Smith will again make changes to his side tonight, but Sasa Papac is still doubtful with a thigh injury which may also cause him to miss the Scottish Cup final on Saturday.