Smith (left) felt his side should have won the initial tie at Ibrox

Rangers manager Walter Smith admitted his side began to lose their Scottish Cup quarter-final tie with Dundee United before it went to a replay.

The first match at Ibrox finished 3-3 before United triumphed 1-0 in the rematch at Tannadice.

"We've only got ourselves to blame," Smith told BBC Scotland

"We were up 3-1 at home (in the first game) and, normally, you would've said that we could see that game out and we didn't, so we pay the consequence."

A last-minute goal by David Robertson booked United a place in the semi-finals at the expense of a Rangers side that showed seven changes to their weekend win in the Co-operative Insurance Cup final.

"Overall, it was disappointing just to lose a goal right at the end," said Smith.

"We have quite a number of games and our focus is certainly mainly on the league championship but that's no excuse.

"We've got a group of players, we have to use them and we have a game at Tynecastle on Saturday, which is an early kick-off, and a game at Perth on Tuesday night. Four games in 10 days is a lot to ask for any players.

The defeat ended Rangers' hopes of winning a domestic treble but the Scottish Premier League leaders' title defence was boosted by Celtic's 4-0 defeat to St Mirren.

"It's no consolation to us," added Smith. "We want to try and do well in all the competitions that we're in.

"People keep talking about trebles. We're only at the quarter-final.

"You have to take the games as they come.

"We have a smaller squad of players, we have to change them round because of the number of fixtures that we have.

"We've got to blame ourselves for that because we had the game at Ibrox, and we let it slip so it's our own fault."

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