SCOTTISH PREMIER LEAGUE: Alex McLeish has set his players the target of winning every remaining match this season as he casts covetous eyes on three cup triumphs.
Rangers are odds-on to beat Ayr United in the League Cup Final next month and are still involved in the Scottish Cup and the UEFA Cup with a meeting coming up against Feyenoord in the latter next week.
Now, following an excellent midweek semi-final victory over their old rivals Celtic and another fine performance as they beat Hearts 2-0 at the weekend, the Ibrox manager insisted: "We must win every game to win cups and, for that matter, to have any hope of catching Celtic in the Premier League." Rangers romped to a 2-0 victory with second-half goals from Ronald de Boer and Neil McCann.
Celtic, meanwhile, carried serenely on in the league with a 5-0 victory at home to Dunfermline and a 13-point lead.
Martin O'Neill's team recovered from the shock of losing that semi-final to their close rivals by demolishing the Fifers and even had the twin luxuries of playing Chris Sutton at the back to avoid breaking up the prolific strike partnership of Henrik Larsson and John Hartson and missing an early penalty.
The Swede was the sinner then as he saw his shot saved by Scott Thomson but he ignored that aberration and went on to net a hat-trick with further goals from Hartson and Didier Agathe, who O'Neill has suggested could be a worthwhile addition to France's all-conquering international squad, adding the other.
"We bounced back from midweek and were terrific - I knew we would score even after missing the penalty," declared the Irishman.
Agathe has admitted playing for France in the World Cup this summer would be a dream come true.
Agathe said: "If the manager of the national team called me then I would be more than happy to go. This current French team is so great that they have never been beaten since 1998 or something.
"But if they called me then I would really love to go, but I have to keep playing well and be in this team at Celtic.
"Everybody wants to play for their national team and I am no different, but I need to produce good performances right up until the end of the season.
O'Neill admitted Agathe's ankle ligament injury, sustained at Hearts in November, may have hampered his chances.
The Celtic boss, however, insists if he can recapture his frightening best until the end of the campaign then he could be in with a shout of joining the French on the plane to Asia.
"There are not many players in European football who can do what Didier can," claimed O'Neill. "He is so dangerous from a standing position, he is explosive."
While all is a bed of roses for the Old Firm the job of managing Hibernian is proving a thorny task for the European Cup winner Franck Sauzee, whose ailing side followed up their humiliating League Cup semi-final defeat against Ayr by crashing 4-0 to Mo therwell at Fir Park.
David Ferrere, a Frenchman who was making his debut after being out of football since last June, knifed his countryman with a hat-trick and just to rub salt into Sauzee's gaping wounds the other Motherwell goal came from a former Hibernian player Dir k Lehmann.
Fortunately for Hibs, St Johnstone are even worse and they lost 1-0 at Dundee where Kiko Torres netted for the home team while their manager Ivano Bonetti was back home in Italy getting married.
Both the other Premier League games ended in draws. Tommy Johnson gave Kilmarnock the lead from the penalty spot against Aberdeen at Pittodrie but Phil McGuire quickly equalised and a late Derek Lilley goal for Dundee United cancelled out David Bingham's opener for Livingston at Almondvale.
- Guardian Service.
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