Cup win is timely tonic for Rangers

IT was not just his instinctive caution which prompted Walter Smith to play down the suggestion that Sunday's Co-operative Insurance Cup final triumph over Celtic could also prove significant to Rangers in their bid to retain the SPL title.

While Smith went as far as to accept the injection of morale his players received at Hampden "wouldn't do them any harm" ahead of the championship run-in, he is fully aware that retaining the League Cup offers no reliable indicator of their prospects of overcoming their Old Firm rivals in pursuit of the season's main prize.

It was just two years ago at Hampden, after all, that Gordon Strachan's Celtic team seemed to have struck a telling psychological blow on Smith and his players with a 2-0 extra-time victory in the previous League Cup final showdown between the Glasgow giants. Celtic were also three points clear of Rangers at the top of the SPL table at the time and appeared poised to go on and retain the title.

But Strachan's men stuttered in the closing weeks of the campaign as Rangers finished strongly to claim the crown on the final day. With Celtic currently two points ahead of Rangers, who have a game in hand, all the signs point to a similarly tense and closely-contested race this time around.

While the outcome of Sunday's final has no direct bearing on the championship, it is nonetheless crucial for Rangers in one sense. For had they suffered another setback against Celtic, having lost three and drawn one of the previous four Old Firm fixtures since the turn of the year, it is difficult to believe it would not have constituted a major blow to their collective self-confidence.

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In essence, it was a match in which Rangers had more to lose than Celtic. Having now arrested the momentum Neil Lennon's men had built up with their dominance of those other four Old Firm games in 2011, Smith's players will also have rid themselves of any self-doubt which had been creeping into their minds.

The surprise inclusion of 19-year-old winger Gregg Wylde in the starting line-up on Sunday was vindicated by his role in a far more vibrant and purposeful Rangers performance.

The freshness Wylde brought to the side was highlighted in his refreshingly direct after-match comments when he talked confidently of adding a league title to the first winners' medal of his career.

As Wylde acknowledged, the seventh and final Old Firm meeting of the season, to take place at Ibrox after the SPL's top six-bottom six split, looks certain to be pivotal – even if both title protagonists have proved more than capable of dropping points against other teams already this season.

When battle resumes on 2 April after the international break, Celtic face a potentially hazardous lunchtime assignment at Inverness before Rangers welcome in-form Dundee United to Ibrox. For Smith's squad, focus is now solely on the SPL. While they would have preferred to still retain an interest in both the Scottish Cup and Europa League, that may yet prove to be a blessing in disguise.

If Rangers can avoid serious injuries to key first-team men over the next two months, then a third consecutive championship win should be within their capabilities, not a statement anyone would have made with any confidence just a few weeks ago when they were dissected 3-0 by a rampant Celtic at Parkhead.

Assuming Steven Naismith's withdrawal from the Scotland squad yesterday is of the precautionary variety, in the wake of his return to action following hamstring problems, his presence could be a key factor. The former Kilmarnock player, whose career at Rangers took time to get going due to previous injuries, brings a level of creativity and verve to Smith's team which they badly missed in his absence, while also providing an ideal foil for Steven Davis to recover his most influential form.

But perhaps the key man for the reigning champions in their remaining 11 games of the campaign will be Nikica Jelavic.

The Croatian striker worried Celtic's defence to the point of distraction at times on Sunday, showing tantalising glimpses of why Smith invested the bulk of his transfer budget in bringing him to Ibrox last summer.

While Rangers have players rediscovering full fitness and form, the concern for Celtic as they analyse Sunday's final will be the number of their players who seem to be falling short of the impressive standards they had set since the turn of the year.

Scott Brown, Kris Commons and Gary Hooper were the most conspicuously off-the-boil members of Lennon's team at Hampden, while the absence of the injured Daniel Majstorovic from the back four is beginning to appear a bigger problem for Celtic than might have been initially imagined.

We can only guess at Lennon's view of the situation now facing his team, given his continued media silence as he serves his touchline suspension. He looked ill at ease in the stand at Hampden, shorn of the animation which is his dugout trademark.

But while the club's lawyer contests the terms of Lennon's ban it is easy to form the view that, along with the personal security issues facing the Celtic manager, they are distractions which cannot possibly aid his quest to fashion a successful end to the season.

A fully focused Lennon is capable of galvanising his players for the final stretch of a campaign which still offers them the prospect of a domestic double. But Sunday was a reminder for everyone – if we needed it – that his veteran rival across the city still has much to offer before he finally rides off into the Old Firm sunset.