KENNY MILLER, the Rangers striker, believes Mark Warburton’s side are more than capable of matching Celtic when the Old Firm meet in the Scottish Cup semi-finals this weekend.
The Championship champions won their second medal inside a week as they lifted the Petrofac Training Cup with a 4-0 win over Peterhead on Sunday, Miller completing the scoring after an Ally Gilchrist own goal, James Tavernier strike and Andy Halliday penalty at Hampden. Rangers will now return to the National Stadium this weekend as they face their biggest challenge of the campaign and look to take another step towards a unique Treble this season.
READ MORE: Mark Warburton scathing as Hampden surface overshadows Petrofac Cup win
Warburton’s side have beaten Kilmarnock and Dundee on their way to the last four but will now have to step up another level if they are to see off the Premiership champions-elect. It is a task Miller is confident Rangers are capable of completing, however.
“We are as ready as we can be,” he said. “We always said we would start looking forward to the game once the Petrofac Cup Final was over. We said that when the draw was made. It’s upon us now and the preparations start. We are back Tuesday morning and looking ahead to see how we can hurt them – and how they could possibly hurt us and hopefully nullify that.
“But if we turn up we know we are a match for them. We know we can beat anyone if we turn up and do what we do. Celtic will be a big step up because they are top of the league and probably going to win it – and that makes them the best team in the country. We play a level below so it’s hard to judge. They play a higher level of opposition every week and that’s not disrespectful. It’s just a fact. We are going to have to make a step up – but we are capable of doing that.”
READ MORE: Mark Warburton scathing as Hampden surface overshadows Petrofac Cup win
While the Hampden fixture will be a first taste of the Old Firm derby for Warburton and most of his players, Miller is a veteran of the fixture from his previous spells at Ibrox and stint across the city at Parkhead.
The striker was part of the Rangers line-up that lost 2-0 to Ronny Deila’s side in the League Cup semi-finals last season and has no fears about how the current crop of players will react come derby day.
“I don’t think you can prepare anyone for an Old Firm game,” Miller said. “You have to experience. You can help people as much as you want and tell them how intense and how frantic it will be. That’s something we will be looking to try and take out of it. The way we play is no secret and that’s now going to change.
“The guys will be ready and we have good experience on the staff with Davie Weir and Jim Stewart and a few players have experienced the fixture before too. We will be ready and we look forward to it. It’s going to be a great occasion.”
READ MORE: Mark Warburton scathing as Hampden surface overshadows Petrofac Cup win
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel