Second time around at Ibrox, and now 60-years-old, Walter Smith is pretty much a placid old cove. Not a lot gets to him these days, let alone causes him to lose his rag.

Yesterday, however, on the eve of the final Old Firm league game at Celtic Park, Smith quietly let rip over what he sees as unfair obstacles being put in Rangers’ way.

Tomorrow’s Old Firm encounter has also now been given a heightened edge, given Smith’s lampooning yesterday of Peter Lawwell, the Celtic chief executive, as “head of the sporting integrity committee”, a reference to Lawwell’s recent statement about a possible extension to the league season. The Rangers manager even said he keeps “thinking about a Monty Python sketch” whenever he reflects on Lawwell’s outburst. If the two men come face to face at Celtic Park, an interesting exchange may occur.

Smith is offended by the notion that, as decreed by the Scottish Premier League board last week, the league must finish by May 18 if Rangers do not reach the Uefa Cup final, which could mean Smith’s team playing four games in nine days.

If Rangers do reach the Uefa Cup final in Manchester on May 14, the scenario is even worse: Smith’s side will have to play four matches in eight days between May 17 and May 24, including going to play Aberdeen at Pittodrie on Thursday, May 22, 48 hours before the Scottish Cup final against Queen of the South at Hampden Park.

Yesterday, Smith’s pique at all this was obvious and, while acknowledging that it has been an extremely complicated season, he still blamed the SPL for what he viewed as its nondecision in extending the season to allow breathing space for Rangers.

“Normally managers don’t get involved in this sort of thing, but in this instance, this could have a direct effect on my own job,” Smith said. “I think Rangers could have been given a dispensation to extend the season, even if for just one game, to be played between the end of the league season and the cup final, which would have meant us avoiding having to play four games in a week.

“Given that this has been an extraordinary season, why could they not have given us an extra two or three days in which to finish the league season, which would have then avoided the four-games-in-a-week scenario? I don’t see why one solution could not have been for us to play our game against Motherwell on the Tuesday or Wednesday after the final league game of the season [on May 18].”

Asked if the end-of-the-season schedule will be “manageable” for Rangers, Smith almost shrugged his shoulders as if resigned to his fate, but would not let the SPL off the hook.

“We will have to manage it,” he said. “But if the SPL think this is a fair way to treat you, then fine. But as I say, it can impact upon my job, and how people look upon that job. Is it really fair to ask anyone to play four games in a week? I just think we’ve been treated unfairly.”

In a troubling time for Rangers as they go to Celtic Park tomorrow, one ray of light for Smith has been Neil Alexander, his reserve goalkeeper, whose form has been excellent while deputising for the injured Allan McGregor. Alexander made two agile penalty saves in the shoot-out in last week’s Scottish Cup semi-final against St Johnstone, and he revealed again against Fiorentina at Ibrox on Thursday that he provides an impressive presence in goal.

Yesterday, the goalkeeper spoke intriguingly of his surprise and delight at seeing his Rangers career take off, after years of steady though hardly headline-making soldiering with Cardiff City and Ipswich Town.

“When I signed I fully expected to be sat on the bench as back-up to Allan for the rest of the season,” Alexander, who came to Rangers during the January window, said. “But unfortunately Allan got injured as he’s been tremendous this season — one of Rangers’ key men.

“I came up here to play in big games and I’ve been put in sooner than I anticipated, but I look forward to these matches. Hopefully, I play better in the bigger games and if you don’t want to be involved in them, you shouldn’t be a footballer.

“It was also fantastic to make my European debut \ at Ibrox. It was probably the most important clean sheet of my career and I hope I can do just as well in the second leg. Sunday, however, comes first and it is another massive game.”

The thought of a Uefa Cup final next month is almost too much to take in for a man who has ploughed the furrows of the Coca-Cola Championship.

“I loved my six years at Cardiff but when we discussed a new deal, we couldn’t agree,” Alexander said. “I wanted to stay, but I was in dispute with Cardiff before I went to Ipswich, and then the chance to come to Rangers was just too much.

“If you’d told me I’d be playing in a Uefa Cup semi-final this season I’d have laughed it off. It is just incredible, and coming to Rangers and playing in Europe is something that I never thought I’d have in my career.”

Yet such has been McGregor’s form this season — both on and off the field — that Alexander fully expects to take a back seat again when Rangers’ No 1 goalkeeper returns. “I fully expect to go back to being the back-up,” he said. “Allan’s had a tremendous season and deserves to play in finals.”