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Smith demands domestic focus from Rangers

16/05/2008

Manager Walter Smith has called on his Rangers players to put the disappointment of their Uefa Cup final defeat behind them and focus on the domestic campaign.

Rangers lost 2-0 to Russian outfit Zenit St Petersburg on Wednesday night at the City of Manchester Stadium, ending their hopes of an unprecedented quadruple this season.

And despite the inevitable anticlimax that defeat will cause around Ibrox, Smith has demanded his players do not allow it to disrupt their focus on the important eight days ahead.

"It will be difficult to judge just how much [the Uefa Cup defeat] takes out of our players but I hope that what is at stake for us will lift them again," Smith told the Rangers website.

"With four games to go we can win two more trophies so that is what we have to aim for now."

Rangers play Motherwell in the Scottish Premier League tomorrow, before further matches against St Mirren on Monday and Aberdeen on Thursday complete their league fixture list.

Victory in all three games will guarantee the SPL title for the Gers, who then face First Division side Queen of the South in the Scottish Cup final next Saturday.

Echoing the sentiments of his manager, Rangers striker Kris Boyd admitted he was "disappointed" with the result in midweek, but added: "Now we must look ahead to the weekend."

Boyd continued: "At the beginning of the season, we set out to win trophies domestically and anything that happened in Europe was a bonus.

"The further we went in the Uefa Cup, the better it got and things came to an end a bit earlier than we would have liked here.

"But that's life and we hopefully we can go on to clinch the league championship in the next week."