Smith lauds Gers desire after vital Old Firm win

Walter Smith praised the winning attitude of his Rangers side after they moved two points clear at the top of the Scottish Premier League with a 1-0 win over Celtic in a crucial Old Firm derby.

A defeat in the same fixture in December left Rangers trailing their fierce rivals by seven points, but they have since put together a run of seven wins in a row to put themselves in pole position to claim the title with three matches remaining.

The Ibrox side have had to cope with several setbacks in recent weeks, with regular full-backs Kirk Broadfoot and Sasa Papac both out injured along with former captain Barry Ferguson.

But Smith was delighted by his side’s response after seeing them triumph in a must-win game that thrusts Celtic’s bid for a fourth successive title into serious jeopardy.

“If we wanted to win the league championship we were in a position where we had to win this game or else we were dependent on what other teams did to help us in that quest,” Smith said.

“Now we can be dependent on what we do ourselves, which is what we would want.

“We’re on a good run of form just now. I’m really pleased with how some of the boys have been playing and hopefully we can continue that.

“There is desire in the team to win. We’ve had a number of problems to overcome in recent months but we’ve come out of that and with three games remaining we’re in a good position.

“Hopefully the attitude we’ve shown in these games can see us through to the last day.”

The game at Ibrox, played in torrential rain, was never destined to be full of free-flowing football but it certainly contained more entertainment than the previous three Old Firm encounters.

The deadlock was broken by Steven Davis, who finished well from a Kenny Miller cross to score his first Old Firm goal eight minutes before the break.

The Northern Ireland midfielder was then involved in a goalmouth scramble at the other end when he cleared a Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink header from the line with Neil Alexander beaten.

Smith felt the energetic midfielder embodied his side’s performances this season.

“Steven Davis played really well and maybe typifies our team in a number of ways,” Smith said.

“He works extremely hard and it is significant that his contribution at both ends of the pitch was good today.”

Last season Rangers had a seven-point lead over Celtic going into the final stretch before a winning run by their rivals, combined with fixture backlog due to the Gers’ progression to the UEFA Cup final, helped the Hoops clinch the title on the last day of the season.

However, Smith says his side have no excuses this time around and must show the strength to go on and win the championship race.

“We are delighted to be in the situation we find ourselves in at the present moment and hopefully we can take advantage of it,” he said.

“We were in a good position last year and we had a fixture pile-up which didn’t help us at all.

“We’ve not got that this year so we have to show that we have the ability to go on and take the championship.”