Law taking Petrofac cup seriously

Pic: Jeff Holmes

Rangers owe it to their fans to treat every competition with equal importance, according to midfielder Nicky Law.

The Ibrox club will play in four different competitions in their next four games, starting with the Petrofac Training Cup quarter-final against East Fife at New Bayview on Tuesday night.

Championship leaders Hearts were knocked out of the competition by Livingston in August after manager Robbie Nielson made 10 changes to his starting line-up for a game which ended in a crushing 4-1 defeat but which lessened the subsequent workload.

After beating Raith Rovers 6-1 in the league at Ibrox on Saturday, Rangers - nine points behind the Tynecastle side - are currently preparing for the second of seven games in a three-week spell, but Law explained that the backing the team gets at every ground means they cannot afford to prioritise.

The 26-year-old former Motherwell player said: It's the following we get - even to these games. It's a full away end every game.

You can't really go to the game and do what Hearts did, losing 3- or 4-1, it is something you can't really do at this club. It's something we don't want to do.

It's a cup at the end of the day and we want to win it, whatever cup it is.

We know there is another semi-final at Alloa at stake. We are two games away from another final and we want to play in finals.''

Indeed, Law insists his lowest point since joining the Light Blues in 2013 was losing 1-0 to Raith Rovers in the final of the competition at Easter Road last year.

He said: The biggest disappointment for me since I've been here so far was the final defeat against Raith, so we're looking to put that right this season.

We didn't show up. I think we had enough chances to win the game but we weren't good enough.

They scored with what is probably their first shot of the game late in extra-time, we got punished and rightly so.

But it will be a tough game tomorrow night. We went there last season and they gave us a couple of good games so we know what to expect.''

Manager Ally McCoist admits he may freshen up his starting line-up but was also keen to stress the importance placed on the competition by the Ibrox club.

The former Rangers striker said: I can understand the merits of the Petrofac cup competition that we are playing in tomorrow, but then again I can probably understand some coaches and managers perhaps thinking there are maybe just too many cup competitions.

It is important to find the balance.

The league is the priority but at the same time we go into every competition to win it.

We would like to think we treat every competition with the utmost respect and putting teams out that we believe can win games and we will do that tomorrow.

I can remember the disappointment of losing last year's final at Hibernian's ground and I was fortunate enough as a player and assistant manager to go to many finals and I know how much it means to players and everybody at the club.

I do understand the problem that might arise with too many fixtures. Saturday/Tuesday is not a major problem for us at all.

If you asked the majority, if not all, the players they would rather play than train.

Nicky Clark can probably count himself unlucky not to start at the weekend but it gives us food for thought. We have one or two nice dilemmas.''

We are hoping Saturday can kick-start a run of games where we can go on a run and gain a bit of confidence.''