Rice relishing Hamilton's underdog status ahead of cup clash with Rangers
Hamilton head coach Brian Rice is relishing their underdog status ahead of the William Hill Scottish Cup clash with Rangers.
Accies are again fighting a relegation battle and got off the bottom of the Ladbrokes Premiership at the expense of Hearts when they drew 1-1 with St Mirren on Wednesday.
So Rice is happy that the pressure will be off on Saturday with Rangers facing demands to end their long wait without a major honour.
"First and foremost we want a cup run and it's great to be in it and even better that it's a big game against Rangers and it's on the TV,'' Rice said.
"The boys have been doing fine. I think we should have won the game on Wednesday night.
"But we are going into a game against Rangers where we will be massive underdogs again. It's a great thing being underdogs.
"The pressure is on Rangers to win every single game but we feel as if we are playing well and we look forward to the challenge.
"It's a fantastic draw for us. To win the cup you need to beat the teams that are put in front of you. It could have been worse, we could have been at Ibrox, but we are at home and that's the one advantage for us.
"Everyone treats the cup differently. You get one chance at home to knock a bigger team out.
"We have seen cup shocks in the past. Everyone loves the cup. I think it's undervalued, especially in England. But here in Scotland it's still massive. Come May time everyone wants to be at Hampden.
"It's a chance to go to Hampden and go on your holidays with memories of playing in the Scottish Cup final.
"We did at Falkirk, we played Rangers in the final, and - although we lost 1-0 - having the memories of being in a cup final are something that will last forever.''