Jean-Claude Darcheville secured three crucial points when he grabbed the winner from the penalty spot after Charlie Adam had returned from his first-team exile to cancel out Mario Gomez's opener at Ibrox.

Perennial French champions Lyon and the might of Barcelona also await Rangers in Group E and, asked whether the result would make their other opponents sit up and take notice, Smith said: "I don't know, maybe if we continue to get results like that.

"We need to continue to play our way and hope we are good enough to take more points. We need to go away from home against exceptional teams and that's a big test for us overall.

"We are working hard at the present moment and Scottish teams are proving difficult to beat for other countries. We hope that continues but we are in an extremely tough group and we need to play to a high level to achieve anything at all.

"We don't have a lot of players with Champions League experience and we started slowly against Stuttgart, who were the better team in the first period.

"We were disappointed to lose the goal when we did because we were starting to get into the game. But, in fairness, the players didn't let it affect them and got back into the game. We are delighted to win the match."

Picking up points at Ibrox will be crucial to Rangers' hopes of progressing to the knockout phase but Smith pointed out with a wry smile: "The next home game is against Barcelona."

He added: "Any win is important whether at home or away, that's an important factor in this group."

Adam's last start was in the first game of the season when he gave a disappointing performance against FK Zeta in a Champions League qualifier back in July.

A substitute appearance followed in the return leg in Montenegro but the young midfielder had not featured in any other matches until tonight.

Smith admits he was about to replace Adam - who replaced the suspended Lee McCulloch tonight - with DaMarcus Beasley when he grabbed the goal that changed the match.

"Yes, I was ready to take him off," said Smith. "I knew he wouldn't last the full game so I was about to put Beasley on."

Explaining Adam's absence from the team until now, the Gers boss added: "We have a lot of new players and need to have a look around our staff so there have been lots of changes in the team. Charlie has also been injured for the last couple of weeks.

"He scored a number of goals last season and is also good at set-pieces so I felt he could have an impact tonight. The goal was an obvious bonus and we were delighted to get it."

Raging Stuttgart boss Armin Veh said: "We worked hard for 90 minutes then fell asleep for just three minutes.

"I saw many good things from my team but I am still trying to calm down because of the result - I am not happy about that.

"In the first half we controlled the game and created chances. We even scored the first goal - and that's when we have to take it home - there was no reason to commit the mistakes we did."