Smith (far right) looks on at Fir Park with his management team

Rangers manager Walter Smith feels recent call-offs have provided a welcome rest for his players.

The Ibrox side remain top of the Scottish Premier League after triumphing 4-1 at Motherwell, having last played more than a fortnight ago.

"The little bit of a break we had has been good for us," Smith told BBC Scotland after the match at Fir Park.

"We now need to collect ourselves, we've got an awful lot of games still to catch up and play."

Kenny Miller bagged a double and Vladimir Weiss capped a fine performance with a goal as Rangers ran out convincing winners in Lanarkshire, Steven Saunders' own goal also helping the visitors' cause.

John Sutton was on target for Well, the striker capitalising on some sloppy defending by Smith's men.

"I've felt in a lot of games this season we haven't started well after midweek games and such," said Smith.

"We had to put a little bit of pressure on everyone to make sure we started.

"I felt in the first half we were excellent and then of course at the start of the second half giving away a goal, an unnecessary one at that, was something that we didn't want to do but we came back immediately from that and I thought played very well."

Weiss was played in a central role rather than his usual wide berth and Smith was pleased with the Slovakian's performance.

"Any young player that comes to a club goes through a little bit of ups and downs and it takes a little bit of time to settle," Smith said.

"Vladi's shown us some good things and some poor things at the same time, he's never had a great deal of consistency but he's an exciting player and he's one that we hope can settle down."

One downside to the game for Smith was a first-half injury to Steven Naismith but the Rangers boss is confident the forward will be back soon.

"I don't think it's too bad," said Smith.

We're reaching the stage just now where we really can't afford to lose that many players Walter Smith

"It's not a full hamstring injury. He just felt a little bit of tightness, it was more from his back than from the hamstring.

"I don't know how bad it'll be but it's certainly not one that I think is a full-blown hamstring injury."

Smith described Miller's performance as "magnificent" and said the club will continue to try and negotiate a new contract for the 22-goal striker, whose current deal expires in the summer.

"It's an excellent return considering that quite a number of the games have been postponed," said Smith.

"We've tried to reach agreement, so far we've failed, we'll continue to attempt and we'll see where we go from there."

Rangers have been forced to trim their squad in recent seasons to reduce and debts and, asked if Smith was dreading the upcoming transfer window, Smith joked: "At my age, you're always happy to see a January.

"People have been telling us for the last few (transfer windows) that we've been going to lose all our players. We've lost quite a number, some through choice, some not.

"We're reaching the stage just now where we really can't afford to lose that many. Whether we will, whether we won't is another factor and unfortunately from a footballing point of view we don't get the choice.

"We'll have to just wait and see what happens over January and see how we go from there."

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