Walter Smith insists it is too soon to start celebrating the SPL title despite his side's Old Firm win.
Rangers boss keeps the champagne on ice
Rangers manager Walter Smith insists it is too soon to start celebrating the SPL title despite his team's crucial 1-0 Old Firm win over Celtic at Ibrox.
Kevin Thomson scored the only goal of the game to increase Rangers' lead at the summit to six points - with Smith's side also boosted by having a game in hand over their arch-rivals.
However, with two further Old Firm games at Celtic Park to come, Smith is taking nothing for granted - even though Rangers are now red-hot favourites for the title.
He said: "It's always easy for people on the outside to say these things, isn't it? It doesn't count for anything what anybody else says.
"Celtic don't lose many games at Celtic Park, so whatever gap we've got at the moment we will need and that's where we stand.
"It was important for us to get a result today in the sense that we still have two visits to Celtic Park, which are going to be tough for us.
Terrific
"But there is still just less than a quarter of the season to go and we know we have a lot of work to do to improve on the situation we are in at the present moment."
Thomson's first-ever Rangers goal will be one for the former Hibernian man to remember, and Smith took time out to hail the 'terrific' match-winner.
"It was a terrific goal and it gave us a lift going into half-time," he said.
"He has been back for a few weeks now from a double hernia and I feel he is a terrific player - I really like him."
Celtic boss Gordon Strachan admitted afterwards that a third consecutive Championship looks extremely unlikely for the Hoops.
"It's not Alex Ferguson you are talking to here," said Strachan. "I'm not going to play those mind games with everybody else because they will turn it on you.
"We have put ourselves in the position that we are in. We have to hope that somebody else does something for us to become champions and it's a horrible position to be in.
Deserved something
"It is going to be very difficult (to keep the title). But we have two Old Firm games at home and if we play like we did in the first half then we have a chance.
"If we defend like we did today and Rangers get another chance then it could be a problem."
Since Smith took over at Ibrox mid-way through last season Celtic have lost all four Old Firm derbies without scoring a goal.
The Hoops boss explained his poor record against Smith, saying: "Well, they were better in two of those games and in the first game in the sequence, and in this game we didn't take our chances and that came back to bite us.
"The more balanced people, those without an agenda, would say that we deserved to take something from the game and on a good day we would have got more.
"I thought to myself in the first half, 'this is good, I like what I see'. We were composed, we were brave and for a team that is chasing their rivals, we put up a right good showing.
"We were one-dimensional in the second half, that is something we must learn about because it is easy to defend against that."
