Derek McInnes has told his Kilmarnock stars what they will need to do in order to upset Rangers at Rugby Park.
The Ayrshire side have shown previously in their own backyard they can be a real thorn in the sides of both the Light Blues and Celtic as they bid to add another home scalp to their CV. McInnes and his troops are unbeaten in their last five games with an incredible comeback win at Dundee before the break. They fired three goals in the final eight minutes including a 94th minute winner to spark an incredible 3-2 victory at Dens Park and wild scenes in the away end.
It will be 15 days since their last game by the time they take to the field to face Rangers – a major difference to the hectic schedule they boasted at the start of the campaign between domestic duties and European qualifiers. Kilmarnock boss McInnes has told his troops how they go around picking up another victory this weekend as he brought out the stats to back up their home record. Asked during a Sky Sports interview how he goes about trying to beat Rangers, like he did at the start of last season, He said: “I think you need to do so much right in the game.
“We won the game 1-0. It was a tight game and we were very compact, organised with our work and defended brilliantly as a team. That gives you the platform.
“You’ve got to carry a fight, show personality to believe you can win the game and the fact of the matter is – apart from St Johnstone here when we went down to 10 men in the first 15 minutes – it is only Rangers and Celtic that have beaten us here since December 2 last year. That’s including your Copenhagen’s, Tromso and Brugge.
“We feel we are a team that can get results at home and got the confidence we can get the results here. Rangers test you because they have good individual players who given space and non transitions in particular, can exploit that.
“We are mindful of the talent Rangers have but we just need to make sure we are trying to be more of us in the game. If we can be as we have shown in the past we can get a positive result.”