KRIS BOYD has revealed he considered quitting Rangers in the summer over his inability to win selection for the "biggest games". And the striker, currently on his longest first-team run and best scoring form in more than 18 months, is unlikely to consider his status at the club has changed unless he is given a starting berth for the Old Firm encounter on December 27.
In October, Boyd declared himself unavailable for international selection as long as George Burley is Scotland manager because of a paucity of game time for his country. And he admitted taking the same course of drastic action at club level had enter
ed his head.
"My goal for this season was to establish myself in the team and I've achieved that," he said. "But to take it to the next level I need to be playing in the biggest games, like Celtic and European ones. I missed so many of them last season and it hurt. You are gutted not to be involved and it does come to a time when you think, 'do I have to move on'. I thought about that over the summer but decided to give it another shot at the club I love."
Boyd has failed to feature in any of the last five derbies. His latest Celtic snub came on August 31, when the striker didn't even make the bench.
Indeed, Boyd has not tasted a minute of Old Firm action since netting against Celtic for the only time in his career to pave the way for Walter Smith's men to record a 2-0 victory over their ancient adversaries in May 2007.
Smith has not shown faith in Boyd on the major occasions since the early months of his second spell as Rangers manager. The 25-year-old has started only two of the club's last 21 European games.
However, he is currently in his best form in over 18 months and believes he is now equipped to win a regular starting place, with Smith having jettisoned the 4-5-1 shape of last season in favour of a two-man strikeforce.
"When the manager came in (back in January 2007] we were leaking goals left, right and centre and something had to be done to stop the rot," he said. "The manager decided to sacrifice a striker in the harder games and I was the striker sacrificed. Now, though, I feel stronger and fitter than I have ever done at Rangers."
• After yesterday's defeat to Hearts, Smith admitted that the pressure is bearing down hard on his players and their title chances.
The Rangers manager said his team can ill-afford any more slip-ups if they are to have any chance of catching Celtic at the top of the SPL, that the ruinous way they've been dropping points away from home has to stop and stop quickly or else the title can be waved goodbye once more. "Given the consistency of Celtic, the three Old Firm games are ones where the pressure is heaped firmly upon us – and we deserve that," said Smith.
Smith was perplexed and not a little shocked by the manner of this defeat, pointing out that a recent difficulty in defending set-piece balls around their penalty area did for them again, just as it did when drawing 3-3 with Dundee United earlier in the month.
"For the first 20 minutes we struggled defensively," he said. "We conceded too many fouls and we gave Hearts the opportunity to put crosses into our area and we lost two goals because of that. It was our inability to handle the first ball in that cost us.
"After half an hour we played most of the rest of the game in the Hearts half but we didn't create opportunities to score. Hearts had a very solid base and credit to them for that. We have no excuses."
