If it will more outward far enough when you push it with your finger, I'd suspect one of two things.
The first is that you didn't have your shifter all of the way in it's lowest gear position when you anchored the shift cable. If that's the case, you'll get a significant amount of cable slack when you shift into the grannie chainring position.
The second is that your front derailleur might not be compatable with your shifter. If you are using a Rapid Fire shifter, you have to have a front derailleur that is designed for indexed shifter use.