WALTER Smith will this morning challenge his crestfallen players to deal with the disappointment of their Uefa Cup final defeat by winning four games in eight days to secure a domestic 'treble' of trophies as ample compensation.
The Rangers manager knows he faces one of the most difficult motivational challenges of his career in lifting the spirits of his team quickly enough after their 2-0 defeat by Zenit St Petersburg at the City of Manchester Stadium last night.
Smith
knows, however, they have no time to wallow in self-pity if they hope to avoid a potentially remarkable season turning into a massive anti-climax.
Rangers are back in action against Motherwell at Fir Park at 12.30pm on Saturday afternoon, the first of their final three SPL fixtures of the campaign. It is followed by games against St Mirren at Love Street next Monday and Aberdeen at Pittodrie next Thursday.
If they win all three, they will win the SPL title ahead of Celtic before going on to face Queen of the South at Hampden in the Scottish Cup final on Saturday week.
"We don't feel anything other than disappointment at the moment," said Smith last night. "It is easy to point out to the players what they can still achieve if they win their last four games, but it is more difficult to go out and do it.
"It will be difficult to judge just how much this disappointment takes out of them, but I hope that what's at stake for us in the four games left, with the opportunity to win two more trophies, that they will not let it affect them too greatly.
"The SPL is the most important thing now, after losing this game. If we win our next three games, we will be champions and that would be a great achievement for everyone at the club.
"The players have a good opportunity to come back in the right manner but it is going to be a huge test to get them lifted for Saturday. We just hope the importance of the situation will help do that."
Smith conceded his team were undone by a superior side and could only envy the technical ingenuity of Zenit playmaker Andrei Arshavin who was rightly named man of the match by Uefa.
"When you look at Arshavin, you see that we have not had that kind of creativity in our team throughout the season, that someone with something a little bit different," the Rangers manager observed.
"We have a team with an extremely good work ethic and a great attitude to play, but we have lacked someone with a little bit more creativity for us. The final mirrored quite a number of our games in Europe, we lack just that little bit of creativity that is necessary. It was evident again tonight.
"We continue to have a look at quite a number of players around Europe, although we have not been able to watch as many games as we would have liked as we have been so busy.
"We take a lot of pluses out of this season, but we need to add to the squad. It is the end of the beginning for us, if you like, and we have to move forward to the next stage now.
"I can't speak highly enough of the group of players we have. I don't think anyone, including myself or the players, thought this season would lead us to a European final," Smith went on.
"You have to give them credit for what they achieved in 18 games against a lot of very good sides in Europe, managing to get this far.
"It is terrific what they have achieved and hopefully it will stand them in good stead for the future. It is testimony to the way they handled themselves. They have been fantastic and it is always disappointing when it ends this way.
"I feel for the players and it was a very quiet dressing-room after the game. It is bad enough when you are knocked out in the earlier rounds, but to lose in a final is hugely disappointing, regardless of how well the team has done.
"I felt in the first half, Zenit were the better side. In the second half, we came into it a little more but lost the first goal at a bad time for us. We are just disappointed to lose at the end of what has been a very good campaign for us."
Smith made no attempt to seek excuses for his team's defeat, even dismissing the controversy which had surrounded the SPL's refusal to postpone last Saturday's match against Dundee United.
"I don't think the SPL decision influenced the result," he said. "We wanted a break before this game to clear our heads, but I don't think it would have had an effect on the outcome tonight. The players were ready to play, so that decision has no bearing on the game. That was our 64th game of the season tonight, but it's what we have to deal with and we have no complaints."
Smith also rebutted suggestions Rangers may have fared better last night had he adopted more adventurous tactics and insisted he was right to stick with the strategy which took his team all the way to the final.
"You can always look at that," he said, "but the way we played tonight has been successful for us in Europe this season and I didn't feel we should change it in the final," he explained.
"We had other strikers to bring on, and if Zenit were going to score first, it would have been better for us if it happened earlier so we could do that.
"We had reached a stage of the game when it didn't look as if Zenit would score. When the first goal came, it was probably their poorest spell of the game and we were thinking of making a change anyway when they scored."
The full article contains 1013 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
