Rangers boss Smith bans treble talk

Rangers boss Walter Smith has banned all talk of a Scottish domestic treble despite seeing his nine-man side win the League Cup for a 26th time.

Sunday’s 1-0 win over St Mirren at Hampden could be the first part of a potential triple trophy haul for the Ibrox giants who sit 10 points clear at the top of the Scottish Premier League and take on Dundee United on Wednesday for a place in the semi-finals of the Scottish Cup.

But Smith, who won the treble as Rangers manager in the 1992/93 season, is refusing to contemplate a cleansweep.

“Everybody keeps talking about that (the treble) but you have seen how difficult it is. They have been mentioning it for ages but I keep saying to people it is an extremely difficult thing to do,” said Smith.

“For us we are delighted to have won the League Cup but we can be in or out of the Scottish Cup on Wednesday so we will just have to pick ourselves up and prepare for that.

“I know it is an old adage but for me we are in a fortunate position to still be involved in another two trophies. Hopefully we can hang on and do well in those two but there is still a lot of football to be played yet.”

Smith said Rangers’ win over St Mirren ranks up there with the best of his trophy-laden career after his nine-man side produced a remarkable victory.

The odds were stacked against the Gers when Kevin Thomson and Danny Wilson were shown straight red cards in the second-half of a match which St Mirren had bossed until that stage.

However, a Kenny Miller headed goal seven minutes from time sealed the unlikeliest of victories.

It was the fifth time Smith has collected the trophy as Rangers manager and he admitted he would have taken extra-time and penalties given St Mirren’s numerical advantage.

“We would have settled for that after going down to nine-men. Obviously once you score and get in front you hope you can hold on and we managed to do that,” said the Rangers boss.

“It would have been a huge test for them to last an extra half hour after that. You think when you’ve been in the game for a long time you’ve encountered most things but I have never been in a final where we’ve been down to nine men and managed to come out winning.

“It’s a fantastic achievement but as I said to the boys it doesn’t matter how many times you win trophies you can never win enough of them.

“The unlikely circumstances probably make it up there with the best of them.”

St Mirren, in search of their first major trophy in 23 years, had the best of the opportunities with chances from Billy Mehmet and Steven Thomson cleared off the line before a David Barron shot grazed the bar in the first-half.

However St Mirren failed to test goalkeeper Neil Alexander after Rangers were reduced to nine-men and were punished when Miller rose unmarked to head in substitute Steven Naismith’s cross late on.

Manager Gus MacPherson admitted his players might never have a better chance to win a cup final.

“Everybody talked of Rangers’ treble and us being underdogs but I think we put so much into the game,” he said.

“It will probably take a wee while for them to realise just how close they were to actually winning a major trophy. I think people automatically think that when it gets to nine-men it becomes a foregone conclusion but it was probably the period of the game where we were least effective.

“Rangers sat very deep with a tight back four and we didn’t pass the ball quick enough. We created more chances when it was 11 versus 11.”