Rangers manager Walter Smith insists he has no fears about his small squad coping with the demands of massive games in the next week after staging an impressive comeback against Motherwell in the Clydesdale Bank Premier League.
Smith has injury worries at the moment, with Lee McCulloch out for at least a couple of weeks, James Beattie and Kirk Broadfoot still sidelined and major summer signing Nikica Jelavic facing around three months out of action. But the former Scotland boss has every faith in the players at his disposal to deliver against Valencia in the Champions League on Wednesday, before taking on Celtic in the first Old Firm derby of the season.
He said: "The boys who play for us know that's the case. There is no getting away from that.vWe have a situation where we have a small group of players and we know we have to handle it. It's more a mental thing than a physical thing, it's not tiredness in any way."
He added: "It's difficult for the Scottish lads especially, they are playing the world champions on a Tuesday night and having to come back and play in a league game.
"It's not easy to lift yourself mentally for that. It's difficult to adjust to an ordinary league game after playing the world champions.
"It'll be different for the next two games that we have, we will have no problems in that respect."
Motherwell boss Craig Brown urged his players to get nasty and show some belief against both halves of the Old Firm in future.
He said: "There are too many nice guys and good lads in our dressing room - we need a wee bit of an evil streak.
"When we are ahead, we need to make sure we don't lose anything. We need a couple of guys in there who are not going to lose.
"They need to show conviction and belief to win the game and maybe one or two of our lads didn't have that belief. They find the Old Firm a little bit intimidating and that's not acceptable. You want guys who can win in any context, at any venue."
Source: PA
