Walter Smith expressed pride in his Rangers players but also bitter disappointment after Zenit St Petersburg ended their UEFA Cup dreams. Igor Denisov and Konstantin Zyrianov secured a deserved 2-0 victory for the Russian side to win the UEFA Cup final and with it crushed Rangers' hopes of four trophies.

The treble is still on however and the Rangers manager said his task is now to lift his players ahead of Saturday's game against Motherwell in the Clydesdale Bank Premier League.

Smith, speaking after the match at the City of Manchester Stadium, said: "I can't speak highly enough of the group of players that we have.

"I wouldn't think anyone including myself and the players would have thought that this season would have led to a European final.

"You have to give them credit for what they have achieved - 18 matches against a lot of good European sides and we still managed to get to the final.

"It's testimony to the way they have handled themselves, they have been fantastic and it's always a disappointment when it ends in defeat."

Smith admitted that Zenit had been the better side, especially in the first half, but said the Russians had scored just when Rangers were starting to look threatening themselves, with the opener from Denisov coming with 18 minutes remaining.

He also claimed that Rangers should have been awarded a penalty when there was a shout for handball against Denisov, and when Barry Ferguson was clipped by the Zenit goalkeeper immediately afterwards.

Smith added: "We were disappointed to lose the game. I felt in the first half Zenit were the better side but in the second half we came into a it a little bit but lost the goal at a bad time for us.

"We are just very disappointed as it's been a very good campaign for us.

"I thought it looked as though it was a penalty when it hit the lad's arm and Barry Ferguson may have been fouled but sometimes you get these decisions and sometimes you don't and we didn't tonight.

"In the second half we felt we were coming in to it a little bit and the goal changed the whole game."

Smith also insisted his players were not affected by fatigue despite this being the 64th match of the season and the Scottish Premier League's refusal to shift last Saturday's match against Dundee United to help their preparation for the final.

He added: "I don't think the thing with the SPL had an effect on the game. We would have liked to have cleared our heads a little bit but it didn't have an influence on the players tonight, they were ready to play.

"We don't have any winter breaks in Britain, that was our 64th game this season, we have four more left so when you add that a lot of the players play at international level it's a lot of games but that's what the players have to do and it didn't affect the result tonight."

Smith said it was important the disappointment did not overshadow the remaining chase for the league and Scottish FA Cup double.

He added: "It's difficult to judge just how much the disappointment takes out of us but we have our opportunity with four games to go on and win two trophies, so we would hope we can overcome the disappointment and not let it affect us.

"We will approach the remaining games in the way we have done all season and we have the opportunity to make up for the disappointment in the next few days.

"If we win our next three games we will be champions and we would be happy with that!"

Smith admitted that Rangers were short of the sort of creativity that man of the match Andrei Arshavin provided for Zenit.

"I think when you look at the player who has just been man of the match we have missed

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