Hibernian’s Liam Craig wary of Rangers backlash

Craig scored Hibs' 4th goal the last time the teams met. Picture: Greg Macvean

Hibs will heap more misery on Rangers on Friday night by moving above them in the Scottish Championship if they can emulate their two previous wins over the Light Blues this season, which have seen them score seven goals.

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Rangers are short of confidence following cup defeats to Celtic and Raith Rovers, and have selection problems in defence with bans for Steve Simonsen and Lee McCulloch exacerbating injuries to Remie Streete, Richard Foster and Bilel Mohsni.

But Craig knows victory over Hibs would allow the Rangers players some respite during a difficult time.

“Whenever you go to Ibrox you relish it,” Craig said. “It’s great going there knowing that we have been there already this season and performed well.

“I’m sure they are hurting from the result at Easter Road a few weeks ago and they will want to bounce back, especially with their last two defeats - getting knocked out of two cup competitions.

“I’m sure they will want to bounce back from that quickly and they will see a win against us as the answer to that.

“But we can go second in the league and that’s all the incentive we need.”

Raith drew at Easter Road the week before their Ibrox triumph so Craig refused to see that result as a major shock.

“We played Raith last week in the league and we should have put the game to bed early on, but we never,” he added.

“And they have got great fight and spirit, and a lot of quality in the squad, as they showed on Sunday.

“It would be disrespectful to Raith to say I was surprised. We will take confidence from the performances we have already had against Rangers this year.

“We know if we are not at it they have players that can hurt us, but we will go there with confidence.”

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