RANGERS have been playing catch-up for so long that it is only understandable if they would welcome someone else doing the chasing for a while.
Should everything run to Mark Warburton's plan, come 2.30pm tomorrow afternoon the Ibrox side will have registered the first points on the Ladbrokes Premiership board, allowing them to savour some rare ascendancy over their city rivals for fully 24 hours.
And as much as Kenny Miller says he tries not to look too far ahead, you can rest assured that somewhere within the Rangers Football Centre is a large wall planner with the date September 10 marked out in red ink.
READ MORE: Kenny Miller: Scott Brown is right, Aberdeen will challenge Celtic... for second place
It has not escaped anyone's notice within Ibrox that reigning champions Celtic will have faced Hearts and Aberdeen, and chosen to take a weekend off to meet Inter Milan in a friendly in Limerick, by the time Celtic Park plays host to the first Old Firm match of the season that day.
Whether this season turns out to be a one-horse race, a two-horse race, or a three or four team shoot-out, Rangers require a fast start to convince themselves as much as anyone that they are realistic challengers.
After the trauma of their 2014-15 campaign, something of that sort helped put them on track 12 months ago. The club won their first 11 matches in all competitions before St Johnstone provided a rude awakening in the League Cup.
READ MORE: Kenny Miller: Scott Brown is right, Aberdeen will challenge Celtic... for second place
With one journey complete, their next adventure all begins against a Hamilton side who are one of the few top flight teams they didn't encounter on their unorthodox odyssey through the lower divisions.
As much as some may dread it, Miller knows that getting points on the board early will help restore the old dynamics of Scottish top flight football, where Celtic and Rangers fans spend their weekends measuring themselves against each other. If they are playing at the same time this season, that will probably be because they are on the same pitch.
"There is pressure every week when you play for these clubs but - whether you play earlier, a day later, an early kick-off or a late kick-off - you are either playing catch up, or you have a chance to assert pressure and go ahead. If you have been over the course, it is something you enjoy. There is a real focus on the games which maybe hasn't been there for a few years."
At times during the last two seasons of course Celtic and Aberdeen had a similar duopoly going - even if the Pittodrie side generally failed to live with the examination - but a Rangers side packed with veteran experience and playing in front of 50,000 crowds will hope to do a better job of staying the course.
READ MORE: Kenny Miller: Scott Brown is right, Aberdeen will challenge Celtic... for second place
While there were echoes of the bad old days this week as the ongoing conflict of interests with Sports Direct and kit supplier Puma flared up, whatever else happens tomorrow is sure to mark an emotional end point to the club's chaotic period in the lower divisions. "It will be emotional," said Miller. "There are a few lads left, not many, that have been over the four years. But people involved in the club know what it means.
"When I was here the last time it was well documented that there were financial issues," he added. “But I don’t think anyone could have foreseen the problems that actually came. But that’s all behind us now. Since the gaffer has come in the message has always been ‘onwards and upwards’. We're back where it belongs and I can only see the club going one way from here on in."
The meeting with Hamilton will see Miller re-united with a former Celtic pal in the form of midfielder Massimo Donati. "He is a good football player, I played beside him and he is a good guy," said Miller. "He is very comfortable on the ball when you give him time and space. But for him to look great they will need to have the ball so we’ll be looking not to give it away."
How Rangers approach the game is fairly obvious; how Hamilton choose to do it less so. Miller points to the example of Dundee, defeated 4-0 at Ibrox on Scottish Cup duty when they employed an attacking approach, as a cautionary tale.
"I think the fact that we’ll have all the ball in the majority of our games, if not all the games, dictates a bit how the other team will play," said Miller. "I have watched a bit of Hamilton and they looked decent. On the face of it, it looks a decent, open game. But you look last season at teams who opened up against us, like the Dundee game last season. With all due respect, it could have been seven or eight that day. It was a doing. And I think we have improved."
The striker will turn 37 in mid-season but those who feel he is slowing down should know better by now. "What do you think?" said Miller. "That I am going to be happy sitting watching? There still aren’t any better strikers than me so I’ll still be playing!"
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