Blame for Kaunas calamity lies with Smith and Bain

WHEN the pilot of Rangers' delayed flight home from Kaunas informed his passengers that their route would take them over Denmark, he presumably wasn't attempting to rub salt in the wounds of the blackest night in the Ibrox club's European history.

The announcement would have brought a rueful grimace to the face of Martin Bain, however, as the Rangers chief executive tried to absorb the dire reality of their ignominious elimination from the Champions League.

That return flight path, which saw the shame-faced Rangers players arrive back in Glasgow just after 2am, was as close as they will get to Denmark or anywhere else on the continent this season. Instead of facing the Danish champions Aalborg next week in what would be regarded as an eminently winnable third qualifying round tie, Rangers face at least 12 months without the prestige and prize money of European football.

In apportioning culpability for what unquestionably eclipses any previous European failures suffered by Rangers, few of those currently involved with the club can be regarded as blameless. Bain, handed a considerable degree of autonomy by chairman Sir David Murray in handling the club's player recruitment, cannot reflect with any satisfaction on the outcome of his transfer business so far this summer.

The failure to sign defensive reinforcements and at least one creative midfield player has proved costly. The injuries sustained by Spanish central defender Carlos Cuellar, last season's Player of the Year, and captain Barry Ferguson could not reasonably be bargained for, but their absence has brutally exposed the limitations of the current squad.

Manager Walter Smith, despite his expressly admitted reservations about the difficulty of the Champions League qualifiers, nonetheless stated unequivocally that the players he had left at his disposal should still be good enough to overcome opposition who had never previously progressed beyond the second qualifying round of a European tournament.

Smith's faith in those players proved horribly misplaced and his immediate post-match assessment, when he spoke of a lack of pride and determination in their work, betrayed just how let down he felt.

In assessing Smith's part in Rangers' downfall, and he appreciates more than anyone that the buck ultimately stops at his door, his team selection at the grim S.Darius and S.Gireno Stadium on Tuesday raised eyebrows both in the press rows and in the exposed stands where the Rangers supporters suffered in the rain.

Brahim Hemdani, a seasoned and composed European operator, sat on the substitutes' bench as Christian Dailly endured a wretched evening in the holding midfield role. Lee McCulloch's deployment as a central midfield partner for Kevin Thomson was no more successful, while Charlie Adam's contribution on the left flank was wholly underwhelming.

Kyle Lafferty, at £3.75million the club's biggest summer investment and who can play in the wide left role, remained on the bench until the dying stages of the game when he was thrown on in desperation along with Kris Boyd in a futile attempt to recover from the loss of Linas Pilibaitis' 87th minute winner for Kaunas.

Regardless of the formation and personnel Smith chose, however, the most damning aspect of Tuesday night for Rangers was the shocking lack of conviction and self-respect in the performance of a group of players who now bear the mantle of being responsible for the most infamous defeat in their club's history since the 1967 Scottish Cup first round exit at Berwick Rangers.

The only possible salvation for those who survive to play a regular role in the imminent domestic campaign is winning the SPL title. Unless significant improvements are made to the squad before the 31 August transfer deadline, however, it is impossible to regard Rangers as a genuine threat to Celtic's continued dominance of the championship.

Failure to secure the £10million participation in the group stage of the Champions League guarantees will clearly restrict Smith's budget, not to mention the boost it gives to that of Celtic who will now earn an additional £2.25m by taking sole possession of Scotland's share of the television pool money from the tournament.

Madjid Bougherra, signed for £2.5m from Charlton too late to play against Kaunas, may stiffen a defence which has lost the resilience of last season, but the kind of invention and energy Smith desperately needs to inject into his side in more advanced positions comes at a price which may now be beyond Rangers.

They will remain without the services of midfield general Ferguson until October and face a daunting start to the SPL campaign. Starting with Saturday's lunchtime kick-off at Falkirk, three of their first four games are away from home. They also face Aberdeen at Pittodrie before the first Old Firm meeting of the season at Celtic Park on 31 August. Should Rangers fall off the title pace in the early stages, the pressure will inevitably intensify on Smith.

The manager has certainly earned the right to try and rescue the current situation. He resuscitated a club in complete turmoil when he returned to Rangers in January 2007 before embarking on last season's unprecedented campaign of 68 matches which delivered two domestic trophies and a place in their first European final for 36 years.

It was Smith himself, however, who pointed out in the immediate aftermath of the Uefa Cup final loss to Zenit St Petersburg in Manchester that the line between that level of attainment and subsequent failure in the qualifying rounds of the Champions League was a fine one.

That he has been proved correct will provide no consolation as he sifts through the debris of Tuesday night's debacle. It could turn out to be an evening from which Rangers take a long time to recover, both on and off the pitch.

Despondent Dailly admits there are no excuses for 'sickening' exit

CHRISTIAN Dailly conceded both the free-kick which allowed Kaunas to equalise against Rangers on Tuesday night and the needless corner kick from which they scored the winner.

As he reflected on the most disappointing evening of his long career, the 34-year-old Scotland international also conceded that the Ibrox club's elimination from Europe at the first hurdle this season is simply unpardonable.

"This is as low as you can be," said Dailly. "There isn't one word to describe how I am feeling. Everybody was so desperate to play in the Champions League and to fall at the first stage is a real blow. We have no excuses and we know that. The entire team is down. It wasn't down to a lack of work, we just haven't got going in pre-season and these games probably came too soon for us.

"We still had enough chances to finish the game off but we didn't take them and paid the price. It is sickening. We worked so hard, although we never played as well as we can, we know that.

"There was no way we took Kaunas lightly. We have just struggled generally, from the end of last season through to pre-season. We might have lost to Kaunas but there is no way we under-estimated them."

Dailly relived the fateful moment when he gave away the corner which Rangers lamentably failed to defend, allowing Linas Pilibaitis to dramatically head Kaunas into a Champions League third qualifying round tie against Aalborg. "The ball went up in the air and I got a shout of 'time'," explained Dailly. "I tried to guide it back to Steven Whittaker and the ball has skidded off the surface and gone out for a corner.

"Two set pieces cost us the game. We then have to defend the corner and we haven't done that so far this season or during the pre-season. It is the third time since pre-season that a corner has come in at the front post and that we have lost a goal. Ideally we don't want to give away corners but when you do then you have to defend them properly."

Dailly denied there was a lack of determination in Rangers' performance, one of the flaws pointed out by manager Walter Smith after the match. "It is not a lack of desire with the type of players we have," insisted Dailly. "We worked hard enough but we just didn't have enough.

"If you look at last year's team, we were criticised for a lack of flair but from that side we don't have Barry Ferguson, Carlos Cuellar or Steven Davis. They just about played in every game for us last year. We definitely missed their quality over these two games."

McCulloch says pressure is on Ibrox side to win the title

LEE McCulloch admits the pressure is now on for Rangers to produce the goods in the SPL following their shock European exit at the hands of Lithuanian minnows FBK Kaunas.

And he has told every single one of his team-mates that now is the time to stand up and be counted as they prepare for Saturday's curtain-raiser at Falkirk.

McCulloch believes the work-rate, character and desire which took Rangers all the way to the Uefa Cup final has been missing since the squad reported back for pre-season, with friendlies against Schalke, Liverpool and even Clyde and Raith Rovers far from convincing.

But the midfielder believes the 2-1 defeat to Kaunas in Tuesday night's make-or-break Champions League qualifier will act as a wake-up call and he is convinced Rangers will get their act together in time for the start of the new season.

"The only positive is that the season hasn't started yet," said McCulloch. "We said from the start that we wanted the league and we have a bit of pressure on us now to win it.

"Celtic have a bit of momentum and there are other teams who will be much stronger but it all starts on Saturday.

"Things will come together. There are a lot of Scottish boys here and they know what it's all about. We will need to get it together and that will start on Saturday.

"It was always going to be a pressure game, first game of the season away from home to a good team, and now there is a wee bit more pressure.

"But we will be up for it.

"We have no European football now so everyone has to focus on the league and that starts on Saturday.

"Come Saturday, it's going to take men to go out and take the ball and play but that's what we are going to have to do.

"We will have to regroup for the next couple of days and have a right shot at it on Saturday."

McCulloch accused his team-mates of beginning to believe their own hype following last season's efforts, insisting a poor attitude played a major part in their downfall in Kaunas.

And he is now bracing himself for the fall-out which will inevitably accompany the shock defeat. "Probably most of it will be deserved but we need to get it out of our heads," he said.

"I don't think we would have lost that game last season. We were a harder team to beat last year.

"Maybe as a group, because we had played in the Uefa Cup final and it was a good season, you think you're better than what you are and that you don't need to do the nasty bits of the game anymore. I though that was the case last night, I don't think we worked anywhere near as hard as we worked last year.

"We need to get back to basics and start going in the right direction again. We've not been pulling our weight in pre-season either.

"At the time you say it's only pre-season games but then you come down to the games that count. We should have beaten them in the home leg and that game last night just wasn't good enough.

"You have to go out there and earn the right to win a game and that starts with hard work and doing the basics.

"I just think it's a game we should have won and we should have gone through to the next round. I'm not picking out any individuals – it's down to everyone collectively.

"We went on a tremendous run last season and it wasn't because we were individually brilliant or had lots of flair – it was all down to hard work and a bit of luck.

"We have to get back to playing as a team again."

Some of the blame will be laid at Walter Smith's door but McCulloch insists the players must hold their hands up instead and admit that they simply were not good enough.

"The manager just picks his team," he said. "The bulk of the team who were out there was the team who played last season anyway so there are no excuses.

"The players are to blame, not the coaching staff or anyone else. It's the players who have come back with that mind-set after last season and it was the players who lose the game.

"It's there for everyone to see that it wasn't good enough."

Lisa Gray