DONALD FINDLAY has admitted he would be “thrilled to bits” if he watched Cowdenbeath, the club he is now chairman of, beat Rangers at Ibrox this Sunday in the Scottish Cup.

And he warned his former club that his team of young, part-time players are a dangerous side and will enjoy going to Govan with no pressure on them and a genuine belief they can cause an upset.

It is now almost 17 years since the country’s most famous lawyer resigned as vice-chairman at Ibrox under a cloud after being caught on camera singing The Sash. He has been with Cowdenbeath since 2011 and yet most people still associate Findlay with Rangers, at least in terms of football.

However, he is very much a died in the wool Blue Brazilian these days, rather than a Bluenose, and nothing would give the now 64-year-old more pleasure than watching his hometown side turn over the one he once worked for.

“I would be thrilled to bits if we could beat Rangers,” said Findlay. “If Cowdenbeath could go to Ibrox and beat Rangers it would a great thing for the players and the club.

“You have to believe that we can cause an upset. It is a one-off game and, as I keep saying, there is no pressure on my lads. The one thing they can’t do is get to Ibrox, have a look around and think ‘oh, s***t.’

“We have been playing well. We beat Ayr United, who are second in the league, and we were very unlucky to lose to Dunfermline, who are top, at the weekend. So I believe there is no team playing better than us in League One at this moment.

“This game on Sunday is less important than us, I believe, because the most important thing for Cowdenbeath is our league position. We have got a very young side who are now beginning to play some good stuff after a bad start to the season

"As a club, given what we want to do, we need to get promotion and right now we are aiming for the play-offs. The good thing for this young team is that they can go to Ibrox without any pressure on them and just enjoy themselves.”

When asked whether he was looking forward to returning to Ibrox, Findlay paused for a few seconds and then said: “I suppose.” He clearly is not.

Drawing Rangers in the cup is a good thing for a club such as Cowdenbeath who will come out of the tie better off, but returning to the stadium is never easy for this old board member.

“I went to Ibrox once last season when we played there,” said Findlay. “I am going on Sunday and it will be a very strange experience.

“At every well run stadium, there are places you can go and places you cannot go if you are a visitor. So it is quite a different experience for me these days.

“I always like to go and see my players before a game because as chairman I see that as part of my role. The last time I went to Ibrox, I walked in and turned right for the home dressing room. I must remember to turn left to go to the visitors’ dressing room on Sunday.

“It was only the second time I had been in the other dressing room at Ibrox and took me aback just how different it was to the home one. I will go on Sunday as usual. But it’s left, not right. I’ll try to remember that.”

Findlay is no more than a casual observer of what is currently going on at Rangers but has been impressed from afar at what Mark Warburton is at least trying to do.

“Warburton is doing the only thing he can do and that is to try and get Rangers promoted,” said Findlay. “He cannot do any more. I have not seen them live this season so I don’t know whether they could compete with the best, and by that I mean the Scottish Premiership.

“But I have been told by those who have watched them that they are worried that this current team wouldn’t have a chance in the Premiership. But maybe that is Rangers fans being pessimistic – which you can’t blame them for being."

Findlay genuinely loves being chairman of Cowdenbeath and if he ever did miss his Rangers days, that feeling has been gone for some time.

He, of course, remains a divisive figure because of the people he represents in court, his choice of jokes and then there was the signing. Although the hugely successful advocate has never seen what the fuss has been all about or why anything he has done could ever be described as controversial.

However, no matter what your opinion of the man is, and it’s fair to say you either hate of love him, what cannot be disputed is his passion for football and his club.

“I am chairman of Cowdenbeath for two reasons,” said Findlay. “The first is that this is where I come from; Cowdenbeath is what I am.

“And secondly I am doing something more important and that is giving young guys the chance to play professional football, something I would have loved to have done but wasn’t good enough."

Findlay might not be able to go into the home dressing room any more, but he will be in the board room on Sunday to chat with the men who now do his old job.

“I don’t know the new regime at all,” admitted Findlay. “I have known John Gilligan for many years. I have met Mr King and Mr Murray but that’s as far as it goes. It would be good to see John Greig, old cheery chops, and Mark Hateley if they are at the match.

“It’s been over 16 years now since I left Rangers so there has been a lot of changes. One or two things have happened and one or two people have come and gone. I think that’s fair to say.”