Walter on this stage of the season and how the league is panning out

[Boab 73]

Rangers manager Walter Smith is determined to remind everyone that early-season promise does not always equate to end-of-term honours.

Smith believes it will be early February before he can reliably predict whether this will be another transitional league season for Rangers, or potentially one of the defining campaigns in the club's recent history.

But ambition in the Light Blues camp has been fuelled by Celtic's recent stutter, and the target remains the title as second-placed Rangers begin a hectic run of 11 matches in 39 days at Aberdeen.

The manager will complete the first year of his second stint in the Light Blues hot-seat on January 10, but there will be scant time to toast that landmark, even if Rangers have overtaken current leaders Celtic.

Rangers head to Pittodrie for Sunday's Clydesdale Bank Premier League tussle, with Smith knowing his team's games in hand on Celtic mean they have the chance to establish a lead over their Old Firm rivals in the coming weeks.

"It would be nice," said Smith, "but the factor is we have the two games in hand which always leave you trailing a little bit.

"It'll be the end of January before all these things even themselves out. We always say the halfway stage of the championship is the one where you can look and maybe take stock a little bit.

"And normally you don't have as many midweek games, including internationals, that they do in the first half of the season.

"So you normally get a little bit of a breather because of a couple of postponements of games, but quite a heavy period in January.

"So it'll be maybe after January before we can look and take stock and see where we are at that stage.

"We are strongly in a challenging position this season, trying to build a pedigree as a team, one which hasn't won a trophy for a few seasons, so we have to try to build that up."

After Aberdeen, Rangers face rejuvenated Motherwell on Boxing Day, then Hibernian at Easter Road on December 29 and the much-anticipated Old Firm clash against Celtic at Parkhead on January 2.

The run includes two rearranged matches, away to St Mirren and Gretna on January 8 and 16, and six of the nine league games which feature in the stretch of fixtures are away from Ibrox. Rangers' other two games before January is out come in the domestic cups.

The original St Mirren game in November was called off at the Scottish FA's request, ahead of Scotland's Euro 2008 qualifier against Italy, and the Gretna clash was postponed earlier this month when Rangers sought a weekend off ahead of their Champions League tie against Lyon.

On the basis of the heavy fixture load, Smith's caution is understandable.

He has achieved plenty since his appointment at the start of the year, but is well aware the job is only half done. Rangers are nevertheless longing for silverware, and to end Celtic's recent domestic dominance.

"We've come to a stage of the season where the matches are important to us," Smith stressed.

"They come thick and fast between now and the end of January and we'll have to show that we're capable of handling it."

Aberdeen's 4-0 victory against Danish champions FC Copenhagen in the UEFA Cup on Thursday, and the Dons' subsequent draw against Bayern Munich in the last 32, has sent a surge of excitement through the Granite City ahead of Rangers' visit.

Smith has taken teams to Pittodrie often enough to recognise the trip is rarely straightforward, irrespective of Aberdeen's form.

"I don't think any Rangers team going to Aberdeen gets a reaction from a win or a loss - I don't think it makes any difference to them," Smith said.

"It's always a tough place for us to go.

"Regardless of Aberdeen's circumstances, whether they've had a defeat or as they did do on Thursday night a terrific win, it's a tough and very difficult match."

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[mark_ni 12]

good article and walters being very sensible IMO. We have a lot of hard games coming up and even a team on form can struggle playing so many games in such a short space of time. We are not at our best at the moment so we will really need to up the effort over the next few weeks. We are in a very strong position but anything can happen in the next few weeks. Good to see walter not getting ahead of himself, i hope the players have the same mentality as him as we dont want them getting complacent on the field.