WALTER Smith has given up any hope of the SPL assisting his team's preparations for the Uefa Cup final next week and claims there is no desire from the organisation to play a part in one of their member clubs winning a European trophy.
Rangers dropped two points in the title race against Hibs at Easter Road yesterday and now face consecutive home games against Motherwell on Wednesday and Dundee United on Saturday before they can fully focus on their first European final for 36 year
s against Zenit St Petersburg at the City of Manchester Stadium on 14 May.
By contrast, the Russian champions have had all three of the league games they were scheduled to play between their Uefa Cup semi-final triumph last Thursday and the final postponed by the Russian Premier League.
The circumstances facing the Russian football authorities are considerably different, as their league season runs from March to December and they have scope to reschedule the three matches for Zenit.
Smith, however, still believes more could have been done to support Rangers who will play their remaining five league games in a 16-day period. He pointed to the example of 2003 when Celtic were allowed to bring an SPL fixture against Dundee forward by 48 hours to give them extra time to prepare for the Uefa Cup final against Porto.
"Zenit will be delighted to have a clear run before the final now," said Smith, "and it is disappointing that we don't have that kind of leeway. People have made it perfectly clear that they are not going to do much to help us, so we just have to get on with it.
"There is no willingness on anyone's part to help us and I don't expect that to change now. It's been a few days now since we reached the Uefa Cup final and while the Russian Premier League have made their intentions clear quickly, we have not heard from anyone.
"When the SPL announced the league would be extended to 22 May if we reached the final, they weren't doing us a favour. They made that decision because it was just physically impossible for them not to extend the season. So they are not going to do us any favours now. They could have helped out a Scottish team, there is a precedent from the last time one reached a European final, but if everyone thinks it is fair that we prepare for the Uefa Cup final this way, then that's fine by us."
Smith, who learned yesterday that Chris Burke's ankle injury will rule him out for the rest of the season, concedes that his team now probably have to win all five of their remaining SPL matches if they are to overhaul Celtic and win the championship. After yesterday's goalless draw at Hibs, Rangers are now seven points behind the title holders with three games in hand.
"Unless Celtic drop points, we have to go and win them all," said Smith. "We know that we are going to have to try and do that now. We have got two home matches coming up and hopefully we can get up for those before the Uefa Cup final."
Smith, however, does not believe fatigue is beginning to have an adverse effect on his players and insists their difficulty is in overcoming the mental strain of their congested schedule.
"We finished today's game physically stronger than Hibs," he said, "so it's more the mental aspect of it that is a problem. It was an obvious factor after such a big game against Fiorentina on Thursday night which went to extra-time.
"A lot of our boys are experiencing this kind of schedule for the first time, as am I for that matter. Adjustments have to be made and they know they have to apply themselves.
"I felt we were slow to start the match today and the first half was fairly even. We took time to get started in terms of imposing ourselves. The second half was better, we created one or two half chances which we might have done better with and I think we finished the stronger side."
Rangers also suffered a blow when Player of the Year Carlos Cuellar picked up a booking which takes him over the disciplinary points threshold. The defender will now be suspended for his team's penultimate SPL fixture against St Mirren at Love Street on 19 May.
The full article contains 758 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
