David Wotherspoon plans to have last Laff at Ibrox

Playing in only his ninth first-team game, the youngster found himself targeted by Walter Smith's side, the tactic being for Steven Whittaker to fire long diagonal balls beyond the back post to utilise Kyle Lafferty's height advantage. The move paid dividends, the Northern Ireland internationalist nodding down one such cross for Kris Boyd to claim yet another goal.

Hibs boss John Hughes duly cut short Wotherspoon's afternoon, replacing him with Lewis Stevenson shortly before Anthony Stokes claimed a dramatic equaliser.

But today Wotherspoon, now 20 and with 25 matches in a green-and-white shirt behind him, promised Rangers they'll face an entirely different proposition tomorrow if they elect to deploy the same strategy as that day in October.

He said: "It was a difficult game up against Lafferty who is tall, quite quick and a full internationalist. It seemed as if Rangers had targeted me that day, they got it out to Whittaker to play a diagonal ball to let Lafferty use his height against me. Lafferty was a bit of a handful and I didn't play particularly well but I have to forget about that performance.

"I'm not too worried about that happening again tomorrow, though. I've been working on my heading in the last few weeks as it's a wee weakness in my game. Every game is a learning curve for me, I've been up against wee wingers who are quick, tall guys, I just try to keep them out of the game."

Wotherspoon, however, revealed he's hoping he can have Lafferty, if he should prove to be his direct opponent tomorrow, doing more than his own share of defending as he seeks to get forward in the manner in which former Hibs star Whittaker has built his own reputation.

Like Whittaker, Wotherspoon is a midfielder turned defender although his natural instinct is to get on the ball and drive forward as he has done to great effect all season as he's emerged as one of the hottest young properties in Scottish football, a fact recognised by Hibs as they quickly extended his contract until the summer of 2013.

The Scotland Under-21 ace said: "People are telling me I should be seeing Whittaker as a role model. He's a bit taller than me but is a right back who likes to get forward.

"I also try to get forward, I have that right wing all to myself so I try to do that as much as possible although I have to look after my defensive duties as well."

If that first encounter with Rangers proved somewhat traumatic for Wotherspoon, so, too did the Glasgow side's visit to Easter Road at the end of last year, Hibs getting off to a flying start as Stokes scored the quickest goal in SPL history only for the Ibrox outfit to run out 4-1 winners. Again, though, Wotherspoon insisted lessons had been learned both individually and collectively from that match, pointing out how Hughes' players had since bounced back and were now on a run of five matches unbeaten, a record which has seen them strengthen their grip on third place in the league table.

He said: "It was a bad defeat, a day when everything went wrong. But our boys have a lot of character as we showed again in midweek against Aberdeen.

" It was a poor performance in the first half to go 2-0 down but, as we have shown throughout the season, there's a real spirit, a determination and a will to win within the side."

Although Wotherspoon and his team-mates were furious at themselves for having allowed the Dons what looked like an unassailable lead, the Perth-born youngster insisted there were no half-time ructions or tantrums.

He said: "We were all disappointed but we simply said we couldn't go feeling sorry for ourselves, that we needed to bounce back, we knew we had the character and ability to get back into it."

Hughes' side duly did, Stokes claiming his 15th goal of the season before substitute Abdessalam Benjelloun netted an 88th minute penalty, the Moroccan star maintaining his record of having never ended been on a losing Hibs side when he'd scored.

And it was yet another late, late strike from Hibs, the tenth time this season they've scored in the last ten minutes of a match and, incredibly, the fourth game in succession they'd floored their opponents within the final two minutes.

Celtic fell victim to Hibs' determination to play to the final whistle, Danny Galbraith firing home a dramatic injury-time winner at Parkhead only a few weeks ago and Wotherspoon promised more of the same tomorrow.

He said: "The gaffer has told us we need to fight, to battle hard and then the football will come through. There's a belief in this side that we are not going to be beaten. We like to think going into every match we can take the three points, that's an unwavering mindset."

While Rangers, their lead over Celtic at the top of the table cut to eight points after the events of midweek, go into tomorrow's clash as firm favourites, Hughes believes the supporters of both sides could be in for another epic match.

The Hibs boss said: "To me, our last match at Ibrox was possibly one of the best games I have seen or been involved in this season. It was end-to-end stuff, two teams going at each other, we carried a bit of luck, Graham Stack had a couple of great saves but we could also have won it at the end.

"They gave us a bit of a hiding at Easter Road but even so there were a lot of positives for us.

"For the first half-hour we were really at them, scored an early goal but were disappointed to lose two before half-time and then that third one. We know Ibrox can be a real cauldron when their fans are behind them but I like to think we have the players who will go out there and express themselves on that stage.

"We are a good football side, Rangers are a good football side. We have nothing to lose, the pressure is on Rangers.

"We'll go there, give it our best shot. We've got the Scottish champions, the SPL leaders in front of us but it won't faze us.

"Rangers will know they've been in a right good game whatever the outcome tomorrow proves to be."