Motherwell v Rangers: Manager feared for Ibrox title challenge after Miller departure and injury to Jelavic

Published on Friday 29 April 2011 21:12

Motherwell v Rangers Clydesdale Bank Premier League At Fir Park, today, 12 noon TV: Live on ESPN

FEW things in football come as a surprise to Walter Smith, but the resilience his team have shown this season has been one of them. It is now more than three months since Rangers waved goodbye to Kenny Miller - and, so Smith suspected at the time, to their hopes of retaining the title. But now, with four games to go and Celtic inactive until tomorrow, the champions will go four points clear at the top if they beat Motherwell today.

"When we lost Kenny Miller in January, and we lost Nikita Jelavic to injury, we'd already lost two home games," Smith recalled of his two main strikers. "I'd obviously been hoping to have both of them there this season.

"Our home form hasn't really been good enough this season, I don't think, for us to be getting a championship - we've lost three games at home. So I didn't think we'd get into the position we've been in, and we could have been in a better position even if we'd drawn against Dundee United (who won 3-2 at Ibrox at the start of this month]. I just didn't think that we'd manage to battle away and have the consistency to get into the position of going into the last four games still challenging.

"We still had European games when I was making that assessment. Once we came out of Europe we played a bit better. But we've still been a little bit up and down this season, so I am a bit surprised that we've managed to stay up there."

Jelavic's return to fitness and form has been a big part of Rangers' recovery, compensating for the sale of Miller to Bursaspor. Yet, while proud of that recovery, Smith is aware that his team may well be just one slip away from losing the title race, and warned his players of that when they went down to David Goodwillie's dramatic late winner.

"When we lost to Dundee United I said to the boys we'd have to go undefeated in the ten games that we had left and we could afford one or at the very most two draws within those games. We've had one draw (in last Sunday's Old Firm match] and won five from the six games we've had since.

"If we're holding any hopes of the championship we'll have to win the last four games. It's down to four games. We should say to ourselves that's a good end to the season, and hopefully we can finish it on a high."

Since drawing with Celtic six days ago, Rangers can no longer determine their own fate. Neil Lennon's team have a game in hand, against Inverness Caley Thistle on Wednesday, and if both sides win all their remaining matches the title will be Celtic's.

Yet for all that both teams will go into all their remaining games as favourites, Rangers midfielder Steven Davis, for one, believes that there could be the odd twist in this tale still to come. "I'd be surprised if both teams go and win each of their remaining games," he said.

"I genuinely think somebody will slip up either way between now and the end of the season, whether it's ourselves or Celtic Hopefully it's Celtic, but that's out of our hands.

"I do believe there will be ups and downs still to come in the title race. I think it's in Celtic's hands at the minute. It's advantage Celtic after the result last week."

Given the form Motherwell have been in lately, an away win at Fir Park this lunchtime is far from a foregone conclusion. After a brief sticky spell when he took over as manager from Craig Brown, former Rangers player Stuart McCall has won Smith's admiration for his work with the team, who face Celtic in the Scottish Cup final three weeks today.

"When Stuart got the job I thought there would be a bit of a dip," Smith said. "They had quite a heavy defeat at Ibrox. But since then their form has been great.

"Keith Lasley, for instance, has been excellent this season. He's played really, really well, not just in games against Rangers.

"Stuart has been excellent in assessing what he's got and changing it. They were obviously comfortable with Craig and Archie, the boys, but he's handled that part of it really well.

"Getting to the Scottish Cup fnal is a great thing for him. It could turn out to be a terrific season for them, and we know this will be a dangerous game for us."