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Daily Record
Daily Record
National
Lochlin Highet

Rangers clash presents opportunity for Kilmarnock to surprise rivals insists Derek McInnes

Derek McInnes reckons Saturday's clash at Ibrox presents his side an opportunity to surprise their rivals.

The Kilmarnock boss reckons teams round about them will account for the Rugby Park side will leaving the Rangers game empty-handed, so any points picked up could be vital.

He knows it will be tough with the Ayrshire side only picking up two points away from home this season, but he won't be writing off the trip to Govan.

He said: “It would be a great point but you never set up just to get a point. The message is always you have to be good enough to go win the game.

“There’s three points available like every other week.

“But in the context of our away form, nobody is backing us to get anymore than a point.

“A point would a good result, there’s no doubt about it.

“I am looking more for a level of performance, a steeliness about us, resilience about us.

“It’s a different context to the game on Saturday, but we were good in the game and I thought we did enough to win all three points but unfortunately we never.

“Come Saturday it’s a different type of environment, a different game and hopefully we can pick up something that no one else round about us will expect us to.

“I know what it’s like, they’ll be thinking that we’re getting nothing there, so if we can get something then all the better."

McInnes doesn't think Rangers' Viaplay Cup final defeat will affect this weekend's game, insisting there would be pressure on them no matter what.

He said: “Whether Rangers had won or lost at Hampden, this was always going to be a difficult game for us. It’s in a different competition and I’m sure they’ll be disappointed after Sunday. They’ll be looking for a response to that and they’d been in good form under Michael, picking up some good results.

Chris Stokes his opener against Rangers in January (SNS Group)

“They’d shown more of an attacking threat in recent weeks and, although that wasn’t the case in the final, that was mainly due to the level of the opponent they were up against. Celtic made them defend a lot more.

“It’s important for me that we show some confidence and try and impose ourselves on the game. We can’t take Rangers on in a possession-based game – not many teams can, domestically – but what we can do is make sure that when we surrender the ball, we do it in the right areas.

“We need to nullify their better players on the day, take belief from that and pose some kind of threat ourselves. We had a right good skelp at it here a few weeks ago when they beat us 3-2.

“After opening the scoring we could have had another goal. We were brave, went 4-4-2 against them and did well but for a 20-minute period their movement at the top end spooked us and we need to look at that. They showed a lot of quality during that spell and that was what won them the points.

“So we can be good for 60-70 minutes but there’s no guarantees that that will be enough to get us a result. Teams who dominate the ball, like Rangers normally do, tend to keep asking questions. They have some good players and a bit of everything at the top end of the pitch, with dangerous individuals who play behind the main strikers.

“They force you to concentrate fully and if you don’t – and it might be a break of the ball or just switching off for a split second – those players will punish you and they’ve shown that recently.”

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