WALTER SMITH and Davie Weir have tried to put the lid on claims that Rangers are suffering from fixture fatigue.

The Ibrox club have looked off the pace in recent games, and did so again at Tannadice.

It was Rangers' 30th league game of the season, and they have now played 56 matches in all competitions after winning the CIS Insurance Cup.

They still are in the quarter-finals of the Scottish Cup and quarter-finals of the Uefa Cup, and could play an amazing 60 matches if they were to reach the final of both.

But Scotland star Weir, who will be 38 next month and has made 48 appearances for the club this term, says neither he nor any of his team-mates is feeling the pace.

He said: "Celtic's defeat to Motherwell on Saturday did give us a lift, but we were very disappointed not to get the win at Tannadice.

"If you have a bad game then people talk about tiredness, but that is an easy excuse. Nobody in our side has complained of tiredness.

"We tried to answer all the negatives and we answered a few yesterday.

"But we are still disappointed that we didn't win."

Smith also insisted that is the case and says injuries will be more of a concern during the run-in than tiredness.

He added: "I keep reading about Rangers being tired, but nobody at Rangers has ever said they felt tired.

"I've been at pains to point out to you that I don't think that will be the case.

"With the number of games we have, injury is the main thing.

"We showed yesterday that physically we are not a team that's tired and we showed good spirit and determination to come back."