WALTER Smith has expressed his confidence that his players possess the mental strength required to overcome their Uefa Cup final defeat and pass what he believes will be the sternest test of their footballing lives over the next eight days.
If the Rangers manager was a little resentful at not being granted more time to prepare for and savour the biggest match of his career in Manchester on Wednesday night, he knows his team simply cannot afford to linger over the dismay they experienc
ed in losing 2-0 to Zenit St Petersburg.
They return to action at lunchtime today, facing Motherwell at Fir Park in the first of three away SPL fixtures in five days which will determine whether they can prise the championship away from Celtic.
Maximum points this afternoon and from the subsequent assignments at St Mirren on Monday night and Aberdeen on Thursday night would give Rangers the title and allow them to seek a domestic 'treble' of trophies when they then take on Queen of the South at Hampden in the Scottish Cup final next Saturday.
It is an unprecedented schedule, but Smith has faith in the squad of players who will complete an all-time Scottish record of 68 matches in a season when the final whistle blows at the national stadium next week.
"We suffered a disappointment on Wednesday night but it has to be put firmly in the background," said the Rangers manager. "It's not easy, but it has to be done.
"As a manager, I can sit them all down and point out that we have lost a final, but that we still have to go on and be successful. But it's always easy to say that, it's never easy to rid yourself of that disappointment.
"The players have a real test of their characters over the next week. It will be as big a test as they will have in their professional careers. They are going into three must-win league games and then a Scottish Cup final less than 48 hours after the last of those league games. It's going to be an enormous test for everybody. As I say, it is easy from a manager's point of view to sit them down and talk through whatever aspect of it we want, but in the end it is our players who have to handle the situation.
"They have worked enormously hard to get here. It's a circumstance I can never remember, having to play in this manner for the last week of the season, but it's just what they have to do. We know we have to win the games now.
"Hopefully the importance of the situation, in terms of the league championship and the Scottish Cup, will help them forget about Wednesday and deal with the situation.
"Our motivation is to try and finish off what they started nine months ago. Our aim was to put up a better challenge to Celtic, which we have done, but we now find ourselves in a position where if we win three games, we win the championship.
"We have to show we can handle circumstances which few teams have ever had to handle to get there. Once you get to within this distance of winning the championship, there are always nerves and tension. There will be for us over the next three games. They are all away from home, which is also an unusual circumstance at this stage of the season. We have handled a lot this season and I think there will be a determination to do well in the final games, regardless of the disappointment we experienced on Wednesday."
With Motherwell having secured third place in the SPL and qualification for next season's Uefa Cup last weekend, it remains to be seen how intense their approach to today's match will be. Smith, however, is dismissive of any prospect of his players facing an easier task than they would have done if Mark McGhee's men were still desperate for the points.
"The fact that Motherwell have already qualified for European football won't come into it," he said. "The games in Scotland are always competitive."
Smith, through necessity as much as strategy, intends to shuffle his squad over the course of the four games with Lee McCulloch, Charlie Adam, Steven Smith and DaMarcus Beasley all set to play a part at some stage despite their recent and varied lengths of absence because of injuries.
"They have all been doing extra work in training," he said. "There is a concern over a lack of match sharpness, but we are going to have to use all of our available players over the next four games, whether they lack match sharpness or not. It doesn't matter if they are rusty, they will just have to play."
Sasa Papac is Smith's only fresh injury concern. The Bosnian defender suffered a thigh strain in the Uefa Cup final and faces a fitness test to determine his availability today. Kevin Thomson will play on until the end of the season, despite the midfielder continuing to experience pain in the foot injury which made him a doubt in midweek.
The full article contains 865 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
