Smith relieved after tough win
by Brian Etherson, 08 May 2008
Rangers got back to winning ways with a narrow 1-0 win over a stuffy Motherwell side on Wednesday evening at Ibrox
The gap between Celtic and The Gers is now down to four points and the win over Mark McGhee’s side was hard fought according to Walter Smith.
“I think, taking everything into consideration at this time in the season for all the teams they have to grind out a result as much as anything else,” the Rangers boss told Setanta Sports. “There’s not always a lot of pretty football at this time of the year.
“All the teams in the top six are fighting for something this season, so it was a hard fought game, and there was not much in it between the teams.
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“Strangely enough, there were spells of possession for each of the teams without either really threatening the goal that much, and maybe in the first 15 minutes we had one or two opportunities, but then the game after that was a little bit even.
“Territorially we were by far the best in the second-half, pushing Motherwell back all the time as we finished at Easter Road the other day. But there was a similar strain through the game that we didn’t have that extra spark in that last area to maybe create when we should’ve.”
McGhee was open about his game plan for the clash, but it still caught Smith by surprise.
He added: “Yes it did as a matter of fact, it was unusual of Mark to go to a back three.
“After the first 15 minutes he might have wondered about that, but then after that it certainly succeeded in terms of the amount of possession they had in terms of midfield.
“Maybe if they had been better placed with a through pass on a couple of occasions it might have been better placed to get a goal, but as I say the main thing was we picked up a bit and managed to apply the proper pressure and I was glad when the goal went in.”