McLeish made no attempt to disguise the fact that a 2-0 defeat by Viktoria Zizkov in the first leg of their Uefa Cup first round clash was a major disappointment.

Rangers conceded a goal in each half, saw a Barry Ferguson penalty saved and had a last-minute strike on goal disallowed.

In addition they lost Mikel Arteta to injury before the game and Craig Moore during it. "We have to bounce back," said McLeish, who guided Rangers to the Uefa Cup quarter finals last season.

"We will have to make up for it. The fans who came here to Prague - they have to make it up to those guys.

"I want them to be big enough to handle what happened tonight."

Rangers trailed as early as the seventh minute when Ales Pikl headed in a free kick.

McLeish continued: "I am very disappointed with the Rangers performance We are capable of playing so much better than that.

"We got off to the worst possible start when we lost a goal to a set-piece, which was one of the areas that we thought Zizkov would be strong.

"They have good delivery from set-pieces and we asked the players to be very aware when in such situations."

It was a lacklustre performance from the Premier League leaders and McLeish was at a loss to explain it.

"The goal seemed to deflate our lads. We looked for a positive reaction and we didn't get that.

"We looked a bit one-paced in the first half. I have rarely seen my team play so poorly since joining Rangers."

But he attempted to put a positive spin on the result by insisting that a total salvage job could be achieved in the Ibrox second leg two weeks tomorrow.

"We can still win this tie to progress. It will be difficult but we will see a much improved Rangers team in the second leg, a much hungrier one."