Rangers went down 2-0 at the City of Manchester Stadium to Zenit St Petersburg and afterwards Spanish defender Carlos Cuellar pointed the finger at the SPL's refusal to postpone last Saturday's match with Dundee United.

Smith said: "I don't think the thing with the SPL had an effect on the game. We would have liked to have cleared our heads a little bit but it didn't have an influence on the players, they were ready to play.

"We don't have any winter breaks in Britain, that was our 64th game this season, we have four more left so when you add that a lot of the players play at international level it's a lot of games but that's what the players have to do and it didn't affect the result."