Smith resigned to fact SPL will not help cause

DARRYL BROADFOOT

Published on 5 May 2008

Walter Smith last night re-emphasised his annoyance with the Scottish Premier League in light of Zenit St Petersburg receiving carte blanche from the Russian Football League to prepare for the UEFA Cup final.

Dick Advocaat's side have been excused from the three league games preceding the European showpiece at the City of Manchester Stadium on May 14. Fixtures against CSKA Moscow, Lokomotiv Moscow and Luch Energiya have been postponed to grant Zenit a thorough preparation for the final against Rangers.

By contrast, Rangers will play Motherwell at Ibrox on Wednesday and Dundee United on Saturday before taking on Advocaat's side. The SPL extended the season by four days to accommodate Rangers' backlog of fixtures but Smith again declared the gesture insufficient in light of the support shown to Zenit by the Russian authorities.

Smith also refuted tenuous claims that the club will make a request to the SPL to postpone the Dundee United game. "They have made it perfectly clear they will not help and we have to get on with it,"

said Smith. "They Zenit will be delighted but from our own point of view, I am disappointed we have not been given any leeway.

"The only reason the season was extended in the first place was because it was physically impossible to fit the remaining games in. If there was going to be an opportunity they would have done it by now.

"The Russian Football League have made their intentions clear already - we have been back two days and heard nothing so we will get on with it and go ahead as planned."

The SPL defended their decision to agree to a minor extension of the season by stressing they did not want to give Rangers an advantage in a championship that now seems destined to go to the final day, on Thursday, May 22.

"They could have helped us like they could have helped any Scottish team but they haven't," said Smith. "The SPL were quick to make a precedent by making us play four games in a week, and made a precedent when a team Celtic reached a European final by giving dispensation to cancel a preceding league game. I have said enough already but if they think it is fair, then we will play."

After the exaltation of Thursday night, when Rangers reached the UEFA Cup final with a shootout win against Fiorentina, Smith's happiness was tempered by yesterday's goalless draw against Hibernian at Easter Road.

Celtic are now seven points ahead with two games to play. Rangers now need to win their five remaining league games to be certain of wresting the title from the grasp of their ancient rivals.

"We cannot really afford to drop any more points," said Smith. "I felt it was a little bit slow to start with and it took us a bit of time to impose ourselves. We finished stronger but never managed to get the goal. We now have two home games coming up and have to win them. This is a new experience for a lot of the players, even for me despite my years in the game, and there are adjustments to be made."

Carlos Cuellar will serve a one-match suspension, against St Mirren in a fortnight, after crossing the disciplinary points threshold with a caution yesterday. "Losing any player is a blow, especially considering the number of games we have left," said Smith.