Rangers manager Steven Gerrard has asserted that winning the Scottish Cup is high on his list of priorities, ahead of a Fifth Round tie against Hamilton, as quoted by the Glasgow Times.
Gerrard won the FA Cup twice with Liverpool, giving him a particular appreciation of the magic of knockout competitions.
Therefore, there’s no chance he’ll be making wholesale changes and leaving the Gers unduly open to an upset at the Fountain of Youth Stadium this afternoon.
“It does [still have a prestige] for me,” he said, as quoted by the Glasgow Times. “I would love nothing better than to win this competition.”
“And as long as I am breathing you will never see me disrespect the FA Cup down in England as well because I have had some incredible memories, from a personal point of view, in the FA Cup and I’d quite like to add to that as a coach up here. So you won’t see me disrespect any competition up here.
“We need to respect that [fans paying good money to follow the team in each round] and we will have fans around the world watching on and looking at us hoping that we can go on a journey and the main day out is at the end of it. We need to work as hard as we can to reward our supporters for that.”
Verdict
It’s impressive to hear how motivated the manager is heading into today’s game.
Thoughts of 55 are implanted in every Rangers fan’s mind, but although it seems a while off now, a successful trip to Hampden at the back end of the season would also be huge for the club.
The 2-0 Fourth Round win over Stranraer was a comfortable beginning to this year’s competition, but things go up a notch this weekend against an Accies side who for an hour, gave Celtic a run for their money last weekend.
After 6 games in three weeks, there’s bound to be minor alterations to the playing XI, but a strong and motivated team should be expected as Rangers look to march deep into the competition.
