MARK WARBURTON is confident Rangers will be in prime shape for their shot at Scottish Cup glory after their friendly fixture with Tottenham today.
Rangers travelled south of the border on Tuesday afternoon and will face a Spurs select side at their Enfield training base before returning to Murray Park and continuing the countdown to the final a week on Saturday. Boss Warburton gave his players a few days off in the aftermath of their final Championship outing of the campaign against St Mirren, but sights are now firmly fixed on their Hampden return as they prepare to face Hibernian and look to add the Scottish Cup to their league and Petrofac Training Cup titles.
Rangers have formed a strong working relationship with Mauricio Pochettino’s side in recent months and defender Dominic Ball has impressed during a loan spell at Ibrox. Spurs narrowly missed out on landing the Premier League title this term and Warburton is pleased to have lined-up a useful run-out for his side to fill a three-week gap in their schedule.
“It’s important for us in terms of it being the final game before the cup final, so that is the obvious benefit of that,” he said. “We’re very thankful to Spurs for their hospitality, they are a tremendous club and we can learn a lot from Tottenham.
“I know I’m talking as a Spurs fan here but forget the bias, their academy is first class with a number of players coming through. You look at [Harry] Kane, [Tom] Carroll, [Ryan] Mason and the [Tom] Huddlestones and the [Jake] Livermores etc. [Nabil] Bentaleb is now coming through and [Alex] Pritchard. It’s a fantastic academy. We have Dom Ball here who’s been a credit to Spurs and to himself of course.
“Dom has come up and the players are hungry, so we are delighted to have a good relationship with Spurs and we’ll go down there and look forward to what will be a very challenging game.
“We’ll find out [what strength the Tottenham side will be], but whatever it will be it will be a technically gifted, very athletic team. It’s always a stern challenge and it’s a magnificent training base – one of the very best in Europe, there’s no doubt about that. So we know it will be tough test and it’s what we need, we need that sharpener and that will hold us in good stead for the 21st.”
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