East Fife v Rangers: Pressure on Gers, says Law

Rangers' Nicky Law previews his side's Petrofac Training Cup Quarter Final clash with East Fife. Picture: SNS

But while the Championship, League Cup and Scottish Cup – all of which are also on their imminent schedule – ultimately carry greater significance for the Ibrox club, there will be no escape from the scrutiny which surrounds Ally McCoist and his players when they take the field at Bayview.

Hearts were able to lightly regard the tournament this season, fielding a seriously weakened team when they lost 4-1 to Livingston in the second round back in August. For the Tynecastle club, that decision has been vindicated by a concentration on league form which currently sees them nine points clear of Rangers at the top of the Championship.

Securing that title and automatic promotion to the top flight of Scottish football is clearly also the prize Rangers crave most from the current campaign.

But while their midfielder Nicky Law believes they cannot afford to lose any more ground in the league to Hearts before the teams face each other at Tynecastle next month, he also insists taking their foot off the pedal against East Fife simply isn’t an option.

“Our manager doesn’t have the luxury of being able to sacrifice a competition,” said Law. “Like Hearts, our target is to get out of the Championship and into the Premiership. But we cannot afford to make the number of changes to our team they did when they lost to Livingston.

“Even for a game like this, we will have our supporters on three sides of the stadium at East Fife.

“It is a full house wherever we go and there is an expectancy and demand that we win every competition.

“With the way we lost in the final of this tournament to Raith Rovers last season, there is an added determination for us to win it.

“It’s not good enough for Rangers to have been in this tournament for the last two seasons and not to have won it. So this year we want to make it third time lucky.”

Although buoyed by Saturday’s 6-1 win over Raith Rovers at Ibrox, Law remains frustrated by Rangers’ inability to match the consistency of results and performance levels achieved by Hearts so far.

“It hasn’t been good enough from everyone in general,” added the former Motherwell man. “The two home losses to Hibs and Hearts were tough ones to take, against our rivals in the league this year. It’s strange as to why it’s been such a mixed bag.

“Hearts have been fantastic. You have to say that, with nine wins and a draw. It’s set the marker for everyone else.

“It’s not even been close in most of their games. They seem to be scoring four or five every week. They’ve been fantastic.

“We have to go on a run ourselves. Before we go to Tynecastle (on 22 November) we certainly can’t afford to drop any more points.

“Hopefully with our game in hand, we’ll have closed the gap to six by then. Hearts have a tough game against Hibs on Sunday. All we can do is concentrate on ourselves but you hope they’ll drop points.

“We have to keep winning up until that point. We can’t drop a point. The gap is too big as it is – nine points with a game in hand. You’d rather have the points than the games in hand obviously.

“The pressure at the club, with everything that is going on, not just the football side, means there are a lot of worried fans. That doesn’t help when your team is nine points behind.

“We are expected to win it and go back up to the top flight at the end of the season. The pressure is always there, but as a squad we know that. As I said, we put pressure on ourselves. We are a proud bunch and we want to be at the top of the table come the end of the season.

“It’s a huge three or four weeks for us now in the four competitions we’re in. Hopefully we’ll stay in all of them and there are some great games that we are looking forward to.

“Hopefully we can get into the Petrofac Training Cup semi-final, then we have a League Cup quarter-final against St Johnstone at Ibrox. That’s another good test against a side from the Premiership, then Dumbarton in the Scottish Cup, which we want to go far in as well. It’s a huge, huge month for us. Then it’s Hearts in November.

“It’s exciting times but we need to rectify our consistency before we think about anything else.”

Rangers needed a stoppage time penalty kick from captain Lee McCulloch to scramble a 1-0 win on their previous visit to East Fife in March and Law expects another awkward 90 minutes against the League 2 side tonight with a semi-final away to Alloa on the line.

“They will crowd their midfield like they usually do and make it difficult for us and limit our chances,” said Law. “But for us it will be similar to a lot of the games that we faced in League 1 last year. You just have to hopefully find a way to win the game and break through the shield that these teams do put up against you. With the weather how it is, I am sure it will be a real cup tie at Bayview.”