Rangers defender Gregory Vignal is convinced the club's painful UEFA Cup exit can help them reclaim domestic supremacy.
Wednesday night's 2-0 Ibrox loss to Auxerre meant that Alex McLeish's side were unexpected casualties at the group stage.
However, Vignal was keen to look on the bright side and believes the blow can spur them on to beat their Glasgow rivals on the home front.
The Frenchman said: "There is another game on Sunday, at Kilmarnock, and, in one way, going out of European competition might help us in the league championship.
"We will now have the same number of games as Celtic, who are also out of Europe, and we have to make sure that we win these games.
"A few players are tired, but that happens in football. We are out of Europe but we must keep going if we want to win the domestic title.
"It is a difficult time for everybody and the manager is disappointed. But there is still plenty to play for in the league and in two cup competitions."
The Auxerre clash had coincided with Newcastle's £7.5million bid for Jean-Alain Boumsong and the Frenchman ended up having a poor game against the club he had left in the summer.
But Vignal insisted the 25-year-old should not be made to shoulder the blame.
He said: "I don't know if the talk affected Jean-Alain. He is a professional and always knows what he has to do, but I am not sure if he was 100% fit. He was injured with a dead leg.
"From the beginning, he has been so strong for Rangers so you can't blame him for this defeat to Auxerre."
The defeat would not have been a disaster for Rangers had not Graz beaten the already-qualified AZ Alkmaar in Austria.
Most in the stands were aware that Graz had wrapped up a 2-0 win but Vignal revealed the players had not been.
"We were not aware what was happening in Austria until we returned to the dressing room," he said.
