Derek McInnes says Rangers have a unique opportunity to harness having an entirely home crowd behind them when they face Celtic in the Scottish League Cup quarter-finals.
The Glasgow rivals will face off at Ibrox on Sunday, with a place in the last four of the competition at stake.
There will be no Celtic fans present at the game amid a ticket allocation disagreement between the Old Firm rivals, partly stemming from crowd trouble that marred another League Cup quarter-final between the teams in March.
Sunday’s game will be McInnes’ first Old Firm derby in the Rangers dugout, and if his team are to emerge victorious, he believes the home fans will have a major part to play.
“I think we’ve got to bring the crowd with us,” he told reporters. “You’re not going to play Celtic and dominate the game for 90 minutes.
“We’ll have spells, they’ll have spells, that’s just the way it is. I think it’s important that we tap into having 50,000 behind us.
“They can get behind the players, support them, have their backs and not be on their backs, and really make it as tough for Celtic as possible.
“We’ve got our part to play in that, and I felt that if we can capitalise on good play and good opportunities, which we didn’t do against St. Mirren and we didn’t do against Motherwell [both 1-0 wins at home].
“Obviously, if we can get ourselves in front, give the crowd something to get behind, then I think the strength of our club can be shown.”
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Premier Sports Cup action is back at Ibrox. pic.twitter.com/ER4lX5Ttyn
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Celtic boss Martin O’Neill acknowledged the absence of travelling fans would make for an alien atmosphere, and revealed his team had been visited by police officers to remind them of their responsibilities on the field.
“It’ll be a bit strange not having the fans in, but I’m nervously and excitedly looking forward to it; it’s a great fixture,” he said.
“I always felt as if it [the away support] would give you a crumb of comfort of some description.
“I’d be delighted to be celebrating something in the game. But it’s all about the behaviour, in the light of what has happened in recent fixtures.”
