Old Firm showdown won´t decide the title: Smith

Rangers boss Walter Smith insists his side can still win the Scottish Premier League even if they lose to leaders Celtic on Sunday.

Smith knows Celtic will move seven points clear at the top of the table if they defeat their Glasgow rivals at Ibrox in the season’s first Old Firm clash.

Rangers have fallen behind Tony Mowbray’s team after three consecutive goalless draws.

But, having watched both Rangers and Celtic claw themselves back into contention in the past, Smith believes it is far too early to write anyone off at this stage regardless of the outcome this weekend.

“We don’t want to fall seven behind, we want a good result and to try to peg Celtic back a little bit,” Smith said.

“But both teams have found themselves in a situation where they have been seven points behind the other and have dragged themselves back to win a championship.

“I think the most important thing is for us to peg Celtic back from the points differential we have at the moment.”

Smith now hopes a battle with their old foes could prove to be the ideal tonic for a team still well short of the form they demonstrated in the latter part of last season.

“It’s a good game for us to have, depending on the result,” he said.

“We would rather that than a game where there was maybe a bit of flatness about the place. It will certainly bring our own players into focus.

“There has been an aspect of our season where we have started slowly, allied to the fact we haven’t scored the number of goals we normally do.

“So we have concerns and things we have to adjust to and hopefully we can do that on Sunday.”

Lack of goals has been a problem which could be alleviated by the return of Kenny Miller and Kyle Lafferty this weekend but Smith admits he is far from confident of either being fit enough.

Miller is still being troubled by a persistent hamstring problem and was rested for Tuesday’s Champions League defeat against Sevilla.

“I’m hoping after a few days’ rest he will be a little bit better,” said Smith. “He is going to see a specialist in Germany next week.

“If it has settled down a little bit, and we will know after the next couple of days training if it has, then there is a possibility we can start with him.

“But the injury will have to settle down before we make that decision.”