MARK WARBURTON, the Rangers manager, has proclaimed his side are in ‘good shape’ for the new league season after clinching their place in the last 16 of the Betfred Cup with a 3-0 win over Stranraer.
The Ibrox club secured top place in Group F in front of 30,000 fans courtesy of a Martyn Waghorn brace and a Niko Kranjcar strike, making it four wins and four clean sheets from the new revamped League Cup.
Read more: Rangers 3 Stranraer 0: By name and nature, Ibrox club have proven they are Ready
Ahead of the Premiership opener against Hamilton Academical on August 6, Rangers have one last fixture to play with Burnley coming to Glasgow this weekend.
With that final game to go, Warburton admits he is pleased with the progress made over such a short space of time this summer, insisting his team are getting better with each passing game.
“It’s a tough league with demanding games,” he said. “To maintain a level of intensity we’ve got to use the squad. It’s not about individuals, or eleven players. It’s about the entire squad.
“We’re in good shape. We’ll have more substitutions on Saturday. I spoke to Sean Dyche and it will be a tough test for us. They’re bringing a strong team for the first 70 minutes. It’ll be a tough test.
"It’s the type of test we need for the following week, then we’ll have a week’s training. Hopefully we go into the game in good form, with four clean sheets and scoring 10.”
Warburton was initially critical of the new League Cup set-up with four games coming quickly and early in the season. Despite their easy progress, his view appear unchanged.
“No it’s four games in nine days. I think it’s inappropriate,” said the Rangers manager. “But it is what it is, we had to deal with it.
“We’ve come through the four games injury free, which is always good news and we’ve got better with every game.
“Energy levels were good, there was a good intensity for longer tonight. I felt we got sloppy after 75 minutes but we’ve still got ten days to go until the start to the season.
“So we’re in a good place.”
Last night’s result signified the first defeat for Stranraer in the competition but the Stair Park club’s hopes of progression to the last 16 are far from diminished. With two wins from their first three games, Brian Reid’s team still know that victory at home over Premiership Motherwell on Saturday will be enough to see them finish second and potentially into the next round.
“Well we made it hard for ourselves,” said the Stranraer manager.
“Motherwell might not fancy coming down to Stair Park so it’ll be a difficult game for them, and we want to make it difficult for them. We know if we can perform to the levels we can we’ll give ourselves a chance.”
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