Cousin Set To Start Against Bremen

Mar 2 2008 By Euan Mclean

RANGERS boss Walter Smith is ready to unleash Daniel Cousin against Werder Bremen after resting the striker in yesterday's 3-1 win over Aberdeen.

The Gabon star's on-off move to Fulham finally collapsed last week and he will stay at Ibrox to the end of the season at least.

And although Smith had to draft Cousin in at the last minute yesterday when Jean-Claude Darcheville suffered a recurrence of a hamstring problem in the warm-up, he never made it off the bench ahead of Thursday's UEFA Cup clash.

Smith is sick of talking about Cousin after the soap opera of his doomed move to the Premiership.

And the Gers boss hopes he's only asked to comment on the hitman's goals now, starting with theWerder clash on Thursday.

He said: "Now we've finally got a decision I'd be obliged if Daniel is never mentioned at another press conference this season.

"If he scores a goal then maybe we can talk about him but otherwise I'd be obliged if you could forget about it. He will appear for us fairly regularly between now and the end of the season.

"The game was tough and you have to give Aberdeen credit for the way they played. But I was pleased with the reaction from the players when we did go behind."

Defender Kirk Broadfoot insisted the Ibrox stars didn't feel any more pressure after Celtic earlier cut their lead to just a point.

And that's because the full-back didn't even know the result.

The Gers squad blanked the live game at Hibs because they were busy watching videos of Aberdeen as part of their preparations.

Broadfoot said: "We never watched any of the Celtic game because we were watching a wee bit on Aberdeen. I actually didn't even know the result until half-time in our game and that's only because I saw it flash up on TV.

"We're not concerned about Celtic, only ourselves. As long as we keep winning that's all we need to clinch the title.

"That's not as simple as it sounds because we have a lot of hard games ahead. But it doesn't bother me what other teams are doing. It's more important to just focus on our own preparations.

"It was a different situation having to come from behind to win this one because in most of the games I have played we have been in command. But we reacted well and raised our game."