Rangers so close, says Whittaker

Midfielder Steven Whittaker said that Rangers FC had come close to completing their UEFA Cup dream in Wednesday's final against FC Zenit St. Petersburg.

Narrow margin
According to Whittaker, there was only a narrow margin between victory and defeat at the City of Manchester – with Zenit triumphing because they took their chances. "We went out with a game plan that had got us to the final, we frustrated them, and, at the start of the second half, we had a couple of half-chances," said the 23-year-old. "But it just didn't go in for us and they scored a good breakaway goal and credit to them as they cut us open. After that it was a bit backs-to-the-wall. We tried to push forward but, late on, they got their second. We are little bit disappointed with that."

Missed chances
Where Zenit broke through with goals from Igor Denisov and Konstantin Zyrianov late in the second half, Rangers could only rue near misses from Barry Ferguson, Jean-Claude Darcheville and Nacho Novo. "I don't think there was a lot of difference between the two sides," stressed the former Hibernian FC player. "We both had our game plans, but the difference was that they managed to create a chance that got them their goal. We didn't manage to take ours."

Fresh targets
Rangers' 2-0 loss left Whittaker with a new goal of finishing his first season at Ibrox on a high. "We'll get this out of our minds and hopefully we will go on and win the treble," he said, having lifted the Scottish League Cup in March. "We have three quick league games and then a Scottish Cup final to look forward to. I'd like to thank everyone who got behind the team tonight. They were fantastic. We are all disappointed with the result but we'll be pushing on from here."