But boss Walter Smith insists he will not look back upon an epic campaign with any regrets even if the SPL trophy does remain at Celtic Park.

Thursday night's visit to Aberdeen marks Rangers' 67th game, during which time they have claimed the CIS Insurance Cup, lost the UEFA Cup final and went from red-hot favourites to outsiders for the league championship.

The Old Firm rivals are now locked on 86 points at the summit of the SPL but Celtic's superior goal difference means a win against Dundee United at Tannadice would allow them to retain their crown.

The one-time quest for an historic quadruple, that led to a crippling fixture schedule, may ultimately be Rangers' downfall but Smith is adamant he would not have had it any other way.

"If it turns out that way, then fine," he said.

"You can only try to win and do as well as you can in whatever competition you are in.

"That's what we set out to do this season and we probably have succeeded to a greater degree than we thought, which led us into the situation we had last week with the UEFA Cup final.

"Now we have an opportunity to win the league on Thursday night and we want to take that.

"We have probably played more games than we wanted to this season. But, if it happens that that is the case, that is something we just have to put up with.

"We go to Pittodrie looking for the win and hopefully that does us in terms of the league."

If Rangers do miss out on the silverware, Smith knows his players will be accused of throwing the title away.

Smith continued: "It suited people to say that Rangers were ahead.

"We weren't. We only had games in hand and two of those games were at Celtic Park. That's arguably one of the toughest places a Rangers team could go to win a game.

"We had to play a lot of cup games and Celtic overtook us in terms of points."