Kenny Miller believes Rangers have cup final edge over Hibs

Kenny Miller (left), manager Mark Warburton and Barrie McKay promote 2016-17 season tickets. Picture: SNS.

After completing their league fixtures at Livingston tonight and St Mirren on Sunday, Championship winners Rangers will have a three-week lay-off from competitive action before the final.

Mark Warburton’s side will play a Tottenham Hotspur XI in a closed-doors friendly at the English Premier League club’s training ground in Enfield to fill the gap and Miller insists he has no fears about Rangers lacking sharpness or match fitness when the showpiece occasion of the Scottish football season comes around.

In contrast, the veteran striker feels Hibs will find it “hard going” if they finish third in the Championship and go on to reach the Premiership play-off final, a scenario which would entail Alan Stubbs’ men facing the prospect of eight games in 25 days next month.

Miller was involved in a demanding play-off schedule with Rangers last season in which saw the Ibrox side faltered badly at the final hurdle when they lost 6-1 on aggregate in the final to Motherwell after two-legged wins over both Hibs and Queen of the South.

“I went through it last year and it is tough when you have that number of games,” said Miller. “We played six games in 23 days in the play-offs. It’s hard going, particularly when you know what’s on the line. So I would rather have our build-up to the cup final than Hibs, just. Maybe I would prefer us to have one or two games leading into Hampden, but I honestly think the break will do us the world of good. April has been a hectic month for us with seven games, so the break will come at the right time. We will do the right things in the week leading up to the final and we have a game down south for the middle of the three weeks.

“Any knocks and niggles we’ve got will hopefully be away by the time the final comes around. When you are playing the kind of games we’ve been playing – finals, semi-finals, winning the league – you don’t really think about tiredness.

“At this stage of the season, you just want to be part of the country’s showpiece game. We need to make sure we will finish on a high.”

As demanding as he believes Hibs will find the play-offs, Miller ardently hopes that the club where he started his career will emerge from them to join Rangers back in the top flight of Scottish football next season.

“I would definitely like to see Hibs promoted,” added Miller.

“We want the best teams back in the Premiership and Hibs are definitely one of them. They are one of the best clubs in the country, they have a fantastic manager and a good team.

“I started out there, of course, so you always feel a connection from that point of view.

“I was at Hibs from the age of 11 and got a great grounding in the game from Donald Park who I still regard as one of the best coaches I’ve worked with in my career. So I’d love to see Hibs back up there. No disrespect to anyone in the Premiership right now, but I don’t think I’m wrong in saying Hibs are one of the bigger clubs in the country.

“I hear our manager talking about the product that is Scottish football and the only way it is going to get more attention is when all of the biggest clubs are back up and the games at the weekend are Rangers-Celtic, Hearts-Hibs, Rangers-Aberdeen, Aberdeen-Hibs and so on.”

Miller, meanwhile, believes Rangers have benefitted this season from Warburton’s decision to operate with a first-team squad limited to around 20 players.

Outgoing Celtic manager Ronny Deila has admitted the Scottish champions’ squad became over-populated this season.

“What goes on at other

clubs, we can’t comment on,” said Miller. “But what I can say is that, if I had the choice of a squad of 34 or a squad of 20, then I know the answer. Listen, at times we’ve looked light on numbers, there’s no getting away from that this year. But if you look at our squad list every week, pretty much every fit player who has been available has been involved.

“Listening to the manager and the way he speaks, he talks about a pathway to the first-team and how

everybody needs to see it.

“When you have a squad of 30 you’ve got 19 guys who are not playing

every week. I don’t think that can be good for team spirit. Definitely a lot of guys would be broken by that because you train

every day towards something at the end of that week. If you know you’ve not got that it can be disheartening to a footballer. So for me the way our manager has gone has worked great for us.”