Humiliated: Smith rages at lack of pride as Rangers crash out of Europe

The UEFA Cup finalists departed from European competition for the season three days before the SPL kick-off as they lost out 2-1 to FBK Kaunas.

Linas Pilibaitis scored a dramatic aggregate winner three minutes from the end, with Rangers having tossed away a 33rd-minute lead supplied by Kevin Thomson. 

The end of the road: Rangers players face up to the shock of an early European exit

Shocked: Rangers manager Walter Smith watches as his side are dumped out of Europe

Exit at the second qualifying-round stage of the Champions League has cost Rangers the chance of a £ 10million jackpot and must rank for many observers as the club's worst ever result in Europe.

Smith has spent £9m in transfers since the UEFA Cup Final appearance in Manchester, but a poor first leg in Glasgow was followed by calamity in Kaunas.

The Rangers manager refused to dodge the alarming situation and said: 'No disrespect to Kaunas but we should have had enough to handle that game. They set their stall out well over two games but I never felt we were too comfortable.

'To have come from last season to this is, in many ways, to go from the sublime to the ridiculous and it is a very sore one to go out in the first round. But we did not do enough on the night.'

It is a huge blow for the club with a lot of ramifications. There are financial implications and football ones, too. We have had an awkward pre-season, one in which I did not think we reached any kind of level. 

So we have a job on our hands to get going again now for the SPL.

'Talking about winning the championship is a long way away after a result like tonight's. We just have to get together, get ready for Falkirk and pick ourselves up from there. I will have enough problems lifting them for Saturday.

'Of course, it may affect my budget, because clubs always say they can do things in the transfer market once they get European revenue. We won't have that now.

'We did not deserve any more. If it had stayed 1-1 and we'd got through, I would have counted us fortunate. Kaunas were always a danger at set-pieces - and they scored from two of them.

'Our performances have not had the necessary edge in pre-season and that was lacking again tonight.

'We had players out but we should have had enough to get through this tie. People talk about a hangover from last season, but that is an easy excuse.

'I don't go with that because, while you could maybe say that for pre-season games, I was looking for a pride and determination here - especially after what Europe was to Rangers last season. I'm concerned as I thought tonight would bring out the best in them because of what was at stake.'

Smith had picked Christian Dailly and Charlie Adam in midfield again, but Rangers were dreadfully sloppy for long periods in Lithuania.

As it is, Daniel Cousin, Brahim Hemdani and Carlos Cuellar have not been cup-tied in Europe should there be a buyer out there seeking to take them away from Ibrox.

Smith still hopes to sign more players but top-level talks today will decide the level of budget that is left. Kaunas boss Jose Couceiro was applauded into his media conference afterwards.

The Portuguese coach, appointed less than a month ago at the club sponsored by Vladimir Romanov's UKIO bank, said: 'I want to thank all FBK supporters because their backing was great for us tonight.

'We believed we could eliminate Rangers and we did. The first leg was the dangerous time for us. We did not have guys who had played in front of 40,000 fans but we coped with that at Ibrox.

'Congratulations to all my players because they worked so hard. We wanted a result there to give us a chance and that's what happened. We kept believing, even at 1-0 down tonight, that we could win.

'Rangers were the favourites. They are a strong team and a big club. We are a small club from a small championship in Lithuania.

'We could not attack Rangers all the time. They need space to play in and that's why I denied them that in Glasgow and here, too.'

Bruce Rioch's Aalborg take a 5-0 lead to Bosnia tonight for the right to face Kaunas for a place in the groups.