Smith is appealing to Fifa to make a decision on Cousin

Cousin, who scored in Rangers 4-2 win over Gretna, is hoping to learn this week whether his protracted �3m move to Fulham is given the green light.

"Surely they are going to have to make a decision this week," said Smith, who was celebrating his 60th birthday.

"It's not a difficult decision to make - they either say yes or no and then we all get on with it."

Interview: Rangers manager Walter Smith

Cousin has already played for both Lens and Rangers this season.

Fifa rules permit a player to play for just two teams in a season.

It's not a difficult decision to make - they either say yes or no and then we all get on with it Rangers manager Walter Smith

However, Cousin only briefly represented Lens and a final decision in his case has already been delayed on a number of occasions.

Smith handed Cousin his first start since last month's win at Inverness CT for the visit of Gretna in the Scottish Premier League.

Cousin responded by netting the opener before Steven Naismith, Chris Burke and Kris Boyd helped themselves to a goal apiece.

Kenny Deuchar's late double for the bottom-of-the-table side took a little shine off the win.

Fifa are set to make their judgement on Cousin's future in the next five days and Smith is hoping the waiting will soon be over for all involved in the transfer.

Smith insists his decision to draft Cousin into his starting line-up was for the sake of the player's match fitness - not because he has an idea of what Fifa's ruling might be.

"We thought it would be better to give him a run-out because it's no use for the player or for either of the clubs involved in this situation," Smith added.

"I would have played him far earlier if we had known it was going to take this length of time."

Naismith was also added to the starting XI - with both Boyd and Nacho Novo on the bench following their midweek efforts against Panathinaikos in the Uefa Cup.

And Smith was happy to see both Naismith and Cousin on the scoresheet.

"For us, we've got a number of games coming up and we will need all of our squad," Smith said.

"That's why we gave an opportunity to some of them today, to make sure they are up to match fitness.

"We gave Daniel Cousin an hour today and he is in need of that. We are just delighted that both boys were back on the scoresheet."

Deuchar was the last player to score against Rangers in domestic football back on 16 January and Smith was disappointed he was able to breach his team's defence once again.

"No-one likes to concede two goals like that and we haven't been doing that this season, we haven't been guilty of that aspect," Smith said.