Smith holds hands up over Euro woe

23 October 2009 18:24
And the Gers boss believes his next job is to ensure the humiliating 4-1 thrashing against the relatively unknown Romanian side does not wreck the rest of their season. Hundreds of fans walked out of Ibrox in disgust on Tuesday night, while those who remained until the end did so only to vent their fury as the Scottish champions crashed to a defeat which leaves them propping up the rest of Group G and with their hopes of progressing to the last 16 in serious doubt. "We should have done better," said Smith. "We can't get away from that aspect. It was a poor performance from us overall. That's where we stand. "Everyone who is here takes responsibility for it and I take the ultimate responsibility. "We just have to try to make sure we don't allow it to de-rail us in any way. "We have to continue trying to do as well as we can in the league; we've had a steadiness in terms of domestic results. "But whether we are at the stage where we can hope to compete with the top European clubs - or even the ones below that level - at the present moment is up for debate. "We managed to do it before and I wouldn't have said there was too much difference between our team two years ago and now and we put up a better showing at that stage than we did the other night. "If we get ourselves together, and with a little bit of luck in games, sometimes we can punch above our weight. "I'm only concentrating on making sure Rangers aren't too badly affected by the result the other night." Smith is now looking for a positive reaction from his players when they welcome Hibs to the south side of Glasgow in Saturday's top of the table clash. A win for Rangers allows them to move four points clear at the summit of the Scottish Premier League; defeat will see Hibs move ahead of both halves of the Old Firm into pole position. Smith said: "Over the last few years we've suffered one or two disappointments and everyone has always rallied round and come back again and hopefully it will be the same this time. "We have a situation where we have had a decent run in the league and we have to make sure we don't allow that bad result to affect performances in the domestic situation. "In many ways, this is a good game for us to get because I don't think players or management can turn around say we are not going to be tested to the full. "Hibs have started well and, outside the Old Firm, have had the best start to the season. It's a big game for us." Smith fully accepts the defeat to Unirea simply was not good enough but does believe their lofty position in the SPL suggest Rangers have not been quite as poor as many would claim they have been this season. He said: "I'm honest enough to say that, in spells of the games, we haven't played too well. "Sometimes it rebounds on you a little bit and people start to say 'Rangers haven't played well'. "We've played well in quite a number of games this season, we've not lost a league game yet and, if we win on Saturday, we go four points in front, with Celtic having to play on Sunday. "While there is a huge disappointment with the way the result went the other night, overall, we've had better performances than a lot of people have given us credit for even since this season started."

Source: Team_Talk