Compromise on Smith likely as need increases

Scottish Cup Third round/ Dunfermline 3 Rangers 2:Walter Smith will be able to continue as Scotland's manager if he takes up the reins at Rangers according to David Taylor, the Scottish Football Association's chief executive.

Yesterday's cup defeat here, however, suggests that the Ibrox job will need Smith's full-time attention. Smith and Taylor will hold discussions today after the SFA confirmed an approach from Rangers to have Smith released from his Scotland contract so that he can replace Paul Le Guen, who was sacked last week.

Rangers hope to unveil their new management team of Smith and Ally McCoist, a coach in the national set-up, tomorrow but the SFA is loath to lose the man who has guided Scotland to the top of their Euro 2008 qualifying group. With that in mind Taylor said Smith may be given the option of remaining in charge of Scotland for the vital group matches against Georgia and Italy in March.

"In the short-term, that would save us major disruption," Taylor said. "The key qualifying matches in the group are coming up, the Georgia game in particular, and it would be the worst possible time to have managerial disruption."

With Rangers in need of an instant remedy for their afflictions, the option of Smith temporarily remaining with the national team is becoming an increasingly realistic one, however unworkable such a proposition would appear in the longer term.

The manager is known to be unwilling to leave the SFA in the lurch, but the level of scrutiny associated with all aspects of the Old Firm ensures he would face a higher level of intensity than ever before from Celtic supporters when selecting Scotland squads if doing both jobs.

Within 46 calamitous minutes here, Rangers faced the probability of successive trophyless seasons, the first time they have suffered such a fate since 1970. While two Kris Boyd goals hauled the visitors back into this pulsating cup tie, Dunfermline deservedly held on for victory.

Rangers, under the interim guidance of Ian Durrant, fell behind after 17 minutes as the outstanding Jim Hamilton capitalised on the entire visiting defence missing a routine cross ball from Owen Morrison.

It was the first time Dunfermline, rooted to the bottom of the Premier League, had gone ahead all season. The hosts doubled their advantage before the interval, Stephen Simmons finishing high into Allan McGregor's net at the second attempt, as a previously expectant travelling support voiced their disapproval.

Rangers' generosity in defence was highlighted once again just a minute into the second period, Phil McGuire rising to head Scott Morrison's corner beyond McGregor. As if to supply proof that Smith is taking over a team at its lowest ebb, there was not even a palpable element of surprise that Rangers found themselves 3-0 down to the lowly Fifers.

Boyd, though, kept the contest alive with well-taken goals; the first a low drive in rounding off the finest move of the match, which involved Barry Ferguson, Nacho Novo and Gavin Rae, before he headed home Ian Murray's cross. Ferguson was restored to the starting 11 after his spat with Le Guen, but remains stripped of the club captaincy.

"For us to go three up was absolutely fantastic," Dunfermline manager Stephen Kenny said afterwards. "Anything is possible and we spoke to the players before the game about their win over Rangers in the cup in 1988 and they won that 2-0 back then.

"People have written off our chances of staying up but we don't see that here. This win can galvanise our season," added the former Derry City manager.

Celtic eased through to the fourth round with a 4-0 home win over Third Division Dumbarton. A double by Maciej Zurawski and a strike by Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink gave the home side an unassailable interval lead. Substitute Derek Riordan grabbed Celtic's fourth with 20 minutes to go.

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