Clarity after meeting of Ibrox minds

WALTER Smith has challenged his side to pick up the pace after Rangers again posted evidence to suggest last weekend's defeat to Celtic might only have been a blip in their bid to retain the Scottish Premier League title.

A team meeting, which was called by Smith on the day after the 3-0 loss, seems to have had the desired effect. Captain David Weir, who watched yesterday's 4-0 over St Johnstone from the substitutes' bench after being rested by Smith, revealed in his programme notes that the manager called the players in to discuss "what we have to do and what went wrong".

Since these summit talks Rangers have overcome Sporting Lisbon in the Europa League and then yesterday the Ibrox side reduced the gap at the top to five points, with Celtic losing 2-0 at Motherwell earlier. Rangers, who have played two fewer games than their rivals, have also benefited from a six-goal turnaround in goal difference.

"How influential it will be I don't know," said Smith, when asked about the team meeting yesterday. "We will have to wait and see. But we managed to get a decent reaction from everyone before the game on Thursday and again today. If it's down to the meeting then fine, but I don't really care. The most important thing is we got a reaction from the players. But I don't think we needed a meeting. They were so poor in that game (against Celtic] that everyone was aware of the situation. There had to be a better performance."

Rangers wrestled back some more control of their destiny yesterday and Smith called on the side to take advantage of Celtic's slip by posting an unbeaten run of their own. Celtic had not lost in 17 games before yesterday's setback at Fir Park. Nine league games remain and Smith believes Rangers might have to avoid any more defeats.

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"There were a lot of assumptions made after the game on Sunday," Smith said. "I am talking about people outside of football. People inside football realise that things like that happen. Seasons very rarely go the way you planned them out. You always have to overcome problems.

"We had a problem after the game at Celtic and we have still to show that we can overcome that problem," he continued. "There is still an awful lot of football to be played. Celtic have had (17 games] without losing. That's a great run. I had said after the game that we need to try and emulate that if we are hoping to retain the championship."

There was one setback for Rangers yesterday. Vladimir Weiss was taken off in the first-half after injuring his ankle. He is a doubt for Wednesday's Scottish Cup fifth-round replay away to Celtic.