THE S DARIUS and S Gineras Stadium in downtown Kaunas may seem an unlikely setting for an SPL title decider but the outcome of the second leg of the Champions League second qualifying round at the venue on Tuesday may have a significant bearing on the destination of the league flag.
Rangers will be seeking a vast improvement on the turgid display which saw them held 0-0 by FBK Kaunas on Wednesday evening. That much is essential if they are to maintain hopes of progressing to reach Danish champions Aalborg in the final qualifi
er.
Failure to do so will almost certainly consign Walter Smith's side to the status of domestic also-rans yet again.
Quite apart from missing out on the £10m they would be guaranteed by participation in European football's most prestigious (and lucrative) club tournament, they would suffer the double whammy of seeing Celtic, who automatically qualified as champions, trouser an additional £2.5m as the sole beneficiaries of the Scottish television bounty.
That in turn, would see Celtic increase their economic advantage over their only serious rivals for the title while preventing Walter Smith from attracting the calibre of player he requires now and may need even more desperately when the transfer window reopens at the turn of the year.
"The money you receive for qualifying for the Champions League would help any club but especially ours, because we don't have the television revenue of the clubs from bigger countries," he said.
"So if we were to qualify it would certainly help us in January in terms of the quality of player we could expect to bring in. It would allow us to spend a little more money."
While supporters may bemoan the fact that chronic fixture congestion led to Rangers surrendering a seemingly impregnable lead, Smith refuses to view the previous campaign in a negative light.
"Our aim last year was to settle the squad and provide a realistic challenge to Celtic and I think anyone would say that we did that," he said. "This season we need to go one better and that's our goal."
It was an argument echoed by Scotland midfielder Lee McCulloch. The £2m signing from Wigan Athletic expects that he and Kevin Thomson, Carlos Cuellar, Steven Whittaker and DaMarcus Beasley, all in their sophomore seasons at Ibrox, will contribute more to the cause in the next nine months.
"The league has got to be the priority this year," said the 30-year-old. "It's going to be hard because Celtic are growing stronger, getting momentum going and we need to be big enough and rise to the occasion to try and get that trophy back.
"It doesn't bother me who the favourites are: it's whoever goes out and wins the games. We'll wait and see who does that."
Celtic winger Aiden McGeady may have been indulging in mind games when, on extending his contract at Parkhead until 2013 last month, he stated that he hoped to add another five championship medals to his collection during that time.
The prospect of Gordon Strachan's team stretching their sequence of successes to eight is unthinkable for anyone connected with Rangers but Smith, in the dug-out for the duration when Rangers matched the nine in a row of Jock Stein's sides, is aware of the effect such a run has on a club.
"Having experienced that situation, I know that you gain confidence from it, although I don't think I ever looked as far ahead as five (years]," he said.
"There are a lot of different circumstances involved in going on a run like that and, because of the nature of football, you never know what they'll be.
"It's true, though, that once you get into the habit of winning a championship it does help to take away the nerves and the tension.
"Now Celtic have that advantage while we're coming from behind and we need to make sure that we don't slip up. The finish to last season was as close as some of our players had ever been to a title win and they now know that there's no margin for error.
"That's the pressure that's on all the teams who want to be champions. We have to live with that and Celtic have done it better than us for the last few seasons.
"Success in cup competitions is lovely and we enjoyed our successes last season because we'd won nothing for a few years before that. However, the league is the biggest test of your consistency and of your desire to win."
Even reaching the Uefa Cup final in May failed to dilute the disappointment of not claiming the championship. McCulloch, in a poignant aside, revealed that he has yet to decide whether competing at the City of Manchester Stadium that night represents an achievement or merely another disappointment.
"I've not looked at the medal since," he revealed. "I only looked at it when I got it. I don't even know where it is: I think my mum has it in her house. I'll probably look at it at the end of my career. I just think that the big one this year is the league and I wouldn't mind a league medal."
The absence of club captain Barry Ferguson until November following ankle surgery has left the club short of creativity in the middle of the park but, as far as McCulloch is concerned, mourning has broken and it's time for those left behind to get their fingers out.
"Time will tell," he said. "Obviously, Barry is going to be a loss but people are talking as if it's the end of the world. I just think we need to get together and try to prove that it's not all about Barry, it's about the boys who are willing to go out and win games.
"He's probably our best player but we need to try and compensate for that and not feel sorry for ourselves. I've been speaking to him now and again and he's frustrated. We all want to do it for him and be in a good position when he makes his comeback."
Victory in Lithuania would be a good way to start.
FORMBOOK
FINE FETTLE OR FAIRLY BRITTLE? Some nerves but that's mainly about Europe and trying not to be knocked out before the season starts. Getting in the Champions League group stage is vital but by no means guaranteed. Plenty transfer activity on strikers but not very much in the way of midfielders. Barry Ferguson is already a big miss. At least Allan McGregor's back.
MYSTIC KEV Rangers need to hit the ground running because they don't want to be conceding ground to Celtic early on. They shouldn't have as many games as last season and so there'll be no need to invent a 13th calendar month just to fit all their fixtures in.
IF THEY WERE A TV SHOW Barry Ferguson cooking chicken on The F Word.
TITLE ODDS 10/11
BOGEYMEN Tripped up by Motherwell, Hibs and Aberdeen last season. And Celtic eventually.
IN Madjid Bougherra (Charlton, £2.5m); Kenny Miller (Derby, £1.9m); Andrius Velicka (Viking Stavanger, £1m); Kyle Lafferty (Burnley, £3.25m)
OUT Filip Sebo (Valenciennes, £750,000); Thomas Buffel, (Cercle Bruges, £300,000); Jeroen van den Broeckm (AGOVV Apeldoorn, free).
The full article contains 1225 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
