Rangers manager Walter Smith hailed his players' efforts after the Scottish Premier League leaders won the CIS Insurance Cup on Sunday.Kris Boyd was the Rangers hero as Smith's side twice came from behind to earn a 2-2 draw against Dundee United before winning on penalties in an exhilarating afternoon at the National Stadium.
On Thursday, Rangers became the only British club to secure a place in the last eight of the UEFA Cup with a 2-1 aggregate victory against Werder Bremen despite losing the second leg in Germany 1-0.
"I felt it was an excellent final and although there was a bit of tension near the end, that was to be expected." Smith said.
"It is a terrific achievement and in normal circumstances it is something you would be pleased with.
"But it speaks volumes for them that, after the exertions of Thursday night in the UEFA Cup, they were prepared to put that effort into winning the tournament and I'm absolutely delighted for them."
Noel Hunt's 34th-minute opener looked set to be enough to give United their first trophy since 1994, but Boyd, on for Sasa Papac with half an hour remaining, equalised five minutes from the end of normal time.
The Scotland striker equalised again in the second half of extra-time after Mark de Vries had restored United's lead.
Willo Flood and De Vries scored their spot-kicks but Craig Conway hit the post and David Robertson and Lee Wilkie had their penalties saved by Rangers goalkeeper Allan McGregor.
Jean-Claude Darcheville struck the bar and Lee McCulloch had his penalty saved by Lukasz Zaluska but Steven Whittaker and Steven Davis scored - leaving Boyd to take the glory, along with McGregor.
United boss Craig Levein was left to rue a couple of costly errors as Dundee fell just short on an emotional day.
Levein fought back the tears and admitted that after the game he could barely speak to club owner Eddie Thompson, whose fight with cancer provided an emotional background to this final.
Dundee were convinced they should have been awarded a second-half penalty when Rangers defender Carlos Cuellar threw United full-back Christian Kalvenes to the floor inside the Rangers penalty area, while Levein refused to point the finger at Mark Kerr whose slack back-pass five minutes from time allowed Boyd in to send the game to the lottery of penalties.
"It certainly wasn't our day. I don't want to criticise any officials and I'm sure that if Kenny Clark had seen the tug of the jersey he would have given a penalty. What a cruel way to lose the game," he said.
"I want to be as positive as possible but I am just feeling sick for everyone associated with the club. I felt that we were comfortable on both occasions that we lost goals.
"We hadn't weathered a storm, it was more like a slight downpour and then out of the blue we made a couple of mistakes and were cruelly punished.
"I must credit the players, we got back to our feet and looked on the ascendancy. Everyone who watched the game recognised that we played possibly our best game of the season."
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