Managers Mail

[BLUEDIGNITY 34,071]

Focused On All Fronts

THIS weekend's match with Motherwell is a hugely important one for us at Rangers and we must not lose sight of that fact if we wish to be successful this season.

Of course, the fixture brings Stuart McCall back to Ibrox in an official capacity for the first time since he played for us in the 1990s and it will be a special moment for him.

But for all we know about how much he enjoyed his time at the club, he will be coming back determined to win in his new role as the manager of our opponents. We are conscious of that.

It goes without saying there is a lot of focus on the fact we now have seven Old Firm games to play this season and that our Europa League ties with Sporting Lisbon are coming up.

But people must not forget the important aspect of those fixtures, that being they will only carry the same meaning if we continue to win our other games.

We have to keep an eye on that and make sure everyone is properly focused on what they need to be at all times.

We can't drop our levels at all and on Saturday, having been worked very hard by Motherwell in the League Cup semi-finals recently, we expect the same again.

Stuart has picked his team up well after Craig Brown and Archie Knox left Fir Park and his squad is showing good spirit and a determination to do well.

We found out at Hampden a couple of weekends ago the Steelmen are tough to overcome and we know what to expect from them.

If we are to take three points, I would image we'll have to perform better than we did last time out against Celtic and that's certainly what I am looking for.

We couldn't complain greatly about the final result but having been in a match-winning position twice, it was frustrating to let that slip and we gave away possession far too easily.

It's our objective to make up for that to an extent by turning in a good performance against Motherwell which sees us come out on top and we are hopeful we can do that.

Walter Smith

[1st_Jan_1994 4,868]

With all due respect we were "worked very hard by Motherwell in the cup" because we let them.

An early goal we got and we took our foot off the gas and let them right back into the game.

Couple of early goals on Saturday and kill them off early