Rangers v Motherwell Venue: Ibrox Kick-off: 7.45pmDAVID MURRAY, the Rangers chairman, said yesterday the Scottish Premier League would be ridiculed around the world for its decision not to postpone the match against Dundee United at Ibrox on Saturday as Walter Smith's side prepare for the Uefa Cup final on Wednesday.
Murray pointed out that Zenit St Petersburg, Rangers' opponents in Manchester, had had three league matches cancelled by the Russian FA.
"Throughout the world people will laugh at this decision in disbelief," he said, "and none more so than in Russia as their own association has done everything to assist Zenit St Petersburg."
The SPL argued that postponing Saturday's match would have wider ramifications, namely that the league season would have to be extended beyond an already revised date of May 22nd.
Lex Gold, the SPL's chairman, said: "Given the stage we have reached in our competition, both in terms of the title chase and in relation to the European places, it is not possible to modify the closing date of the season without placing at serious risk the fairness to all of our competition."
Rangers manager Walter Smith insists his players will be fully focused on their quadruple challenge despite the club's failure to ease their schedule.
Smith feels the mindset will be unaffected by the Scottish Premier League's insistence that Rangers play Dundee United on Saturday.
The former Scotland manager hit out at the SPL on Sunday after news emerged that Zenit will not play between their UEFA Cup semi-final and next Wednesday's Manchester showpiece.
But he is now taking a step back from the furore as Rangers continue their heavy schedule against Motherwell tomorrow night.
"Players remove themselves from all that," Smith said. "Normally I would do too, but I just felt it wasn't right at this stage. But players themselves are here to play, and I am here to manage the team, whenever we are told to play. That's what we'll do.
"For us, it's just a matter of making sure we get our focus back.These are the first home league games for a while, so we will look forward to maybe getting a couple of results that we need."
The visit of Motherwell is the first of seven games in 18 days for Rangers as they look to add the UEFA Cup, SPL title and Scottish Cup to their League Cup success.
Celtic have piled the pressure on by going seven points clear at the top of the SPL table, although they have played three games more than their rivals.
But Rangers are boosted by the return of Charlie Adam following a knee injury.
Smith is relishing the prospect, daunting as it is. "It would be a huge challenge to anybody, what we have in front of us," the 60-year-old said. "The games are not being played in a span of time that we would like them to be played in, but it's an exciting challenge.
"This season, if you said to me with four or five games to go we would be challenging for the championship, I would accept that. I would have thought that would have been a good season for us.
"So we have to keep that in mind, but we also know that not only are we making a good challenge, we have the opportunity to win the championship if we can win our remaining games.
"So that's a big thing for any team. Throw in a couple of cup finals and you've got a good end to the season!"
Smith feels no need to use the club's anger at the SPL as a motivational tool. "That's not been a motivation to anybody," he said. "The motivation has been to win, since the start of the season, and that's what we have tried to lay down. That is just emphasised even more come the end of the season."
While Smith admits fearing mental fatigue in his players and called for them to start sharper than they did in Sunday's goalless draw at Hibernian, Christian Dailly has seen no sign of any strain.
"I think if you maybe look back at the end of the season, you notice subconsciously it might be an issue," the 34-year-old said. "But when you are actually involved in it, you feel okay. I think mentally and physically we feel fine."
