WHEN Rangers emerged from a bruising encounter at Fir Park on the opening day of the season bloodied but unbowed, and with three points to show from their battle with Motherwell, manager Pedro Caixinha said striker Eduardo Herrera had shown him his war medals afterwards.

It is fair to say that the less than cordial welcome to Scotland from Stephen Robinson’s men that day was something of a culture shock for the Mexican forward. The likes of full-back James Tavernier though, who has experienced the rough and tumble of the English Conference with Gateshead, remained unflustered.

He plans to stay just as calm today, as he and his team-mates prepare to have their mettle tested once more by the Steelmen of Lanarkshire at Hampden. If Rangers are to prevail and propel themselves to the Betfred Cup final, says Tavernier, there can be no room for cowards in the light blue.

“You can't go into a game and not expect to be kicked, no matter who you’re playing,” said Tavernier. “Teams are aggressive against us, so we have to match it in the right way. We’ll bring the fight to them. We can't have any cowards in the team - we just need to go out there with a good mentality and take the game to them.

“My Gateshead loan had me playing proper man’s football. You can only play reserves for so long and that was a great eye-opener. It was physical, but I have always liked to be physical. It didn’t faze me. No matter what level you play, you do get teams which are really physical and will try to upset you. We have just got to make sure we are not upset and put the fight back to them. I have seen it all before.

“It’s obviously difficult if they're making it physical but we know we like to the ball on the ground and move it around, and sometimes no matter what height the opposition is, quality will overcome a lot of aspects of the game.

“We did it in the first game of the season, Josh Windass showed signs of breaking them down with his pace, so there a lot of ways we can break down teams and I'm sure their height will only be an issue if we let it be from set-pieces.”

Scotland’s national stadium has been both a happy hunting ground and a scene of despair for Tavernier during his Rangers career.

A stunning goal in the Petrofac Cup final win and a Scottish Cup semi-final triumph over Celtic have been followed by two semi-final defeats to their rivals from the East End of Glasgow, and of course, the last-gasp Scottish Cup final defeat to Hibs.

“I’ve had some great memories there and some really bad ones as well, so hopefully we can balance them out with another good one this time,” he said. “When we won the Petrofac there we had almost the whole stadium with our fans and it almost felt like a home game, so the more we have there this time, the better.

“It's always in the back of your head that it's a cup game, a knockout game, so only one team leave the park as a winner. If we have the majority of the fans there, that’s only going to help us.

“[The Hibs game] is in the past. It was obviously disappointing and hard to take being the last game of the season with the summer break giving you a lot of time to reflect on it. But it’s been and gone.

“I hope and expect to be in a lot more finals and be picking up a trophy, so that is one final lost. We expect to be in more finals. This club is known for the trophy cabinet we have and this team is built around winning trophies every year.

"It was so disappointing not even touching a trophy last year, but we know we have got to win a trophy this year no matter what. That is what the fans expect – and you expect that as a Rangers player.”