WALTER Smith last night praised his players for taking the SPL title race to the wire and insisted the final outcome remains firmly in the balance despite their failure to significantly erode Celtic's goal difference advantage.
The Rangers manager watched his team draw level on points with the reigning champions at the top of the table with a 3-0 win over St Mirren at Love Street which leaves them four goals worse off than Gordon Strachan's men on goal difference.
The c
hampionship will be decided on Thursday night when both halves of the Old Firm head for the east coast, Celtic facing Dundee United at Tannadice and Rangers taking on Aberdeen at Pittodrie.
It now seems likely Rangers will require Celtic to drop points if they are to prevail, but Smith was satisfied with their efforts in Paisley last night and the position it has put them in for the final round of fixtures. "We could have scored more goals, but the pitch was awkward tonight and there wasn't a great deal of continuity of possession for either team," he said. "We handled it fairly well and although we could have scored more goals, we have got to be satisfied by the fact we won and won very well.
"We were just pleased to get an early goal (through Kris Boyd] because it takes away a bit of tension from the situation. You can go on and play a bit after that.
"We got another one, then hit the post just before half-time. We could have added more than just another one in the second half, we missed one or two decent chances, but we set out to win the game and managed to do that. After drawing against Motherwell at the weekend, there was a bit of pressure on the team tonight but they handled it well.
"We are in a far better situation than we were last year going into the final league match. We go into the game knowing that if we win it, then the pressure is on Celtic to win as well.
"Each team has to try and win their own game. Will we win the games? No-one knows. It will be a test for everyone. The circumstances of the night will dictate if we need to score a lot of goals. The goal difference is there and we have a target.
"But it is disrespectful to the teams you are going to play to talk about that. They are both very difficult opponents to play against, for both ourselves and Celtic. None of these teams will just let Rangers or Celtic turn up and win. We just have to turn up at Pittodrie on Thursday and see what happens."
One man who will not be captivated by the final-night drama on Thursday is St Mirren manager Gus MacPherson.
"There is absolutely no question both Dundee United and Aberdeen will approach the games in a totally professional manner," he said. "But I'm off to Spain to take my Uefa pro-coaching licence and I honestly couldn't give a toss what happens over here on Thursday night."
The full article contains 531 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
