Smith not taking Hamilton lightly

Walter Smith has defeated Hamilton twice already this season once in the league and once in the cup but thinks this will be the toughest game yet as Hamilton have started to get to grips with life in the SPL.

“They have been finding it hard in the SPL but I’m sure they anticipated as such,” he told Rangers News. “However, they made a bright start because it was new to them and they were an unknown quantity to some teams.”

He added: “They obviously had a good result last weekend when they beat Kilmarnock and that will have helped them.

“They had the experience of coming to Ibrox in the League Cup and we also played them at New Douglas Park so they will use these experiences when they come on Saturday and make things as difficult as they can.”

While Hamilton were ending a 10-match winless run in the league last week, Rangers were dropping more points to fall seven adrift of champions Celtic at the summit.

After the 2-1 defeat at Hearts, Smith knows his side cannot afford many more slip-ups if they are to stand a chance of wresting the title back from their arch-rivals, who have claimed maximum points in the 12 games since losing the Old Firm derby in August.

“We have to get back on track. We are obviously disappointed to have fallen seven points behind at this stage,” Smith said.

“Celtic have shown terrific consistency in the league games and, to open up a seven-point gap when we have won the first Old Firm game, it is even more disappointing for us.

“We have to look at ourselves and say that we have not been good enough to keep going in that manner.”