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Smith shares pain of Euro flop

Rangers manager Walter Smith has assured fans he is hurting as much as they are as the club contemplates a season without European football.

Tuesday night's Champions League qualifying defeat to Lithuanian side FBK Kaunas has been branded as the club's worst ever continental defeat and leaves them without even the chance to reach the UEFA Cup.
But, as much as he shares in the disappointment and frustration, Smith believes the events in Kaunas should be put in perspective saying: "My mother died and that was 20 years ago, that's what matters to you She was alive one day and dead the next. That's the worst thing that's ever happened to me, this is not really up there with that."

Smith added: "You are in this game to win. When the players and fans suffer disappointment you suffer along with them.
"I still feel it as much as it did when it happened 15 or 20 years ago, that never goes away from you. If you are competitive then that's what happens to you.
"Managers always take the responsibility for it. That's a manager's job and what he does.
"We will just get up and get on with it, to make sure we don't let it cause us a problem, starting tomorrow at Falkirk.
"That's something we have to bear in mind more than anything else. People can criticise managers, players or whoever - but now we have to make sure it doesn't create a more upsetting circumstance."