Baraclough Keen To Silence Ibrox

Photo by Jeff Holmes

Ian Baraclough wants his Motherwell side to negate Rangers' huge numerical advantage in the Ibrox stands on Thursday night by silencing the home support.

The Lanarkshire club believed they would be given 2,000 tickets for the first leg of the Scottish Premiership play-off final but ended up with 950.

Motherwell then revised their decision to allow nearly 5,000 Rangers fans to occupy the traditional away stand at Fir Park, cutting the Scottish Championship side's allocation for Sunday's second leg to 1,500.

Baraclough, who revealed he had been interested in Haris Vuckic before the 22-year-old Slovenian moved on loan from Newcastle to Rangers in January, called on his players to render the vast Gers support irrelevant.

"I'm not going to get involved in a ticket row," he said.

"We've been given what we have and we have to get on with that.

"Rangers have been given 1,500 or so, and that has to be dealt with in their own way.

"We asked for three per cent (but got 1.8 per cent) of what their ground holds and we have given them 11 cent - that is quite fair isn't it?

"We know that it will be a fervent crowd at Ibrox and we are going to have to silence them as much as we can.

"But as a player I wanted to thrive on that, I wanted to silence the crowd and put them on the back foot a little bit.

"It can turn against the home team and that is what you want to do as an opposition. Not to be intimidated by it, but to be really inspired by it."

Baraclough, who took over at Fir Park in December after Stuart McCall had departed the club before his subsequent move to Rangers, is determined to prove wrong those who have already got the Light Blues back in the top flight.

The former Scunthorpe and Sligo Rovers boss said: "A lot of the media build-up has been that possibly the winner of the Hibernian v Rangers semi-final was going to be promoted.

"That comes across as something that has been given to them before they have earned it.

"I would love to turn it on its head.

"I think people have written us from the off on this one and that feeling of upsetting the odds appeals to me."

Baraclough confirmed his earlier interest in Vuckic as well as Gael Bigirimana, who also moved on loan to Rangers from the Magpies, but who has not featured for the Gers.

"We spoke about them when I first came in," he said. "I had good conversations with the agent and I think Rangers were aware of that at the time.

"But there must have been certain conversations already about the possibility of coming to Scotland to a different club and that is how it has panned out.

"Are you ever close until you see them sign on the dotted line? I haven't got a clue as to how close they were.

"Vuckic is a good player among many good players. They have threats all over. He is one that we have got to be aware of.

"He has come in and scored good goals at times and he will be one of the threats."