Rangers boss rates Cup Final win as one of his best

Walter Smith claimed playing with nine men spurred Rangers on to a Co-operative Insurance Cup final victory over St Mirren at Hampden.

The dismissal's of Kevin Thomson and Danny Wilson left Rangers with 20 minutes to play with nine men, but Kenny Miller's dramatic late header took the cup back to Ibrox.

The Rangers boss was not too critical of referee Craig Thomson, insisting that the official had inadvertently done his side a favour.

"I am delighted," Smith said.

"At one stage it was unlikely that we would win.

"The first ordering off, in the context of some of the challenges that had gone before, might have been a bit harsh.

"The second one, young Danny misjudged the ball coming down.

"By the laws of the game at the present moment, I don't think the referee had any options than to do what he did.

"But there was nothing really unjust, it was the referee's opinion.

"The refereeing decisions really didn't have that much affect, maybe, if anything it woke us up a little bit because we hadn't been at our best prior to both of them.

"It was a strange game. St Mirren were the better side up until the time we got Kevin Thomson ordered off.

"Then we proceeded to have our best spell of the game until young Danny got sent off.

"Once we went down to nine, I felt it was a matter of trying to hold on.

"But we managed to break away and it was a terrific cross from Steven Naismith and terrific header by Kenny Miller and we managed to hold on.

"I'm really pleased for all the boys who put in a lot of work.

"We would have settled for extra time and penalties after going down to nine men.

"Obviously once you score and get in front you always hope that you hold on so we managed to do that."

Veteran boss Smith put the victory near the top of his long list of achievements.

He said: "The unlikely circumstances will make it up there among the best of them.

"You think when you have been in the game for a long time that you have encountered most things but I have never been in a final where we have been down to nine men and managed to come out winning.

"So it is a fantastic achievement but as I said to the boys, it doesn't matter how many times you win trophies, you can't win enough of them."