Stretched Rangers feeling strain, says Smith

Walter Smith said tiredness was behind his side’s recent poor performances after Rangers laboured to a 1-0 win over Hamilton at Ibrox.

The Ibrox side made hard work of their victory which was clinched thanks to a first-half goal from Maurice Edu that took his side 13 points clear at the top of the Scottish Premier League.

Hamilton thought they had sneaked a late equaliser when James McArthur, linked with a summer switch to Wigan, had the ball in the net but the midfielder had been flagged offside.

The Gers have been struggling for form lately having been knocked out the Scottish Cup by Dundee United and thrashed 4-1 by St Johnstone in the past fortnight.

The Old Firm side have had a heavy schedule of fixtures since the turn of the year having faced three replays in the Scottish Cup and a run of midweek games due to rearranged matches.

Furthermore, Smith has been unable to sign a player in 18 months because of the dire financial situation at the club.

“There is a little bit of tiredness in our team, there is no doubt about that,” Smith said.

“I think there has got to be a little bit of appreciation there for the fact that with having a smaller group of players we’ve had a fair number of matches since the turn of the year, normally a time when you don’t have as many midweek games.

“We’ve played 21 games since January and with not being able to change the team around a lot there is a level of fatigue there. At this stage of the season I would hope people would understand there is a little bit of that involved.”

Rangers now face Aberdeen on Wednesday before a weekend off due to the Scottish Cup semi-finals.

Smith added: “Sometimes it’s a mental tiredness not a physical thing. I think the mental part of it is a big factor for us at the present moment,” he said.

“We have been asking the same group of players to play for us now for a full season. We’ve not had an option to change the team around an awful lot. Maybe around 80 per cent of our team have had to play in all our games and that’s an awkward situation.

“Once we get over Wednesday’s game we start to have a period where we have no midweek matches and I think that will be a huge benefit.”

Rangers are now just three wins away from retaining their league title and Smith says it is more about results than performances at this time of the season.

“That’s the thing more than anything else,” said Smith.

“That’s one more win for us on the way towards hopefully retaining the championship so we just have to make sure we get over the winning line.

“It’s another big game for us on Wednesday night and that’s one we can look forward to and hopefully get a reaction from everyone.”

It was a sentiment echoed by the scorer of the only goal in Saturday’s game.

Midfielder Edu has missed the majority of the season due to an ankle knock and made only his second league start against Hamilton.

The American says he is ready and eager to help Rangers over the winning line.

“It was nice to help the team out by getting the goal. It was a good play leading up to it and I was just able to get on the end of it and finish it off,” Edu said.

“It has been a long season and because we have a small squad there haven’t been a lot of changes and a lot of guys have played a lot of minutes.

“I have missed so much of the season so it’s kind of like I’m only starting so I’m eager to play and have a little bit of freshness. I want to come in and stay in the team and finish off the season strongly.”