Former Rangers manager Walter Smith expects the "bitterness" generated from recent difficult years to be a motivating factor as the club return to the Scottish top flight.

The Glasgow club returned to the top-tier after the club was placed in administration and liquidated in 2012. The Glasgow side were forced to re-enter Scottish football in the bottom tier of the professional game, as a return to the Scottish Premiership looked a long way off.

Back-to-back promotions from the Third Division and League One helped Rangers move up the divisions but it took two seasons to get promoted from the Scottish Championship.

Smith, who managed Rangers to 10 titles across two spells with the club in the 1990s and noughties, believes the memories of dark days will bolster their motivation. 

"That will always stay in Scottish football. There will be a bitterness in the Rangers ranks. It will be a massive motivation for the club. It would certainly be for me. How can they forget what happened to them? Nobody could forget that," he said as part of a promotion for betting firm comeon! 

"There is no doubt it was the wrong move in my eyes: Scottish football has been worse off. And a lot of the teams who were happy to see Rangers going down there have suffered and found themselves relegated or in the process of being relegated."