Dundee United manager Jackie McNamara believes defeat in the Ramsdens Cup final has piled pressure on Rangers.
The Tannadice boss takes his team to Ibrox on Saturday for the William Hill Scottish Cup semi-final against the Light Blues and admitted he would rather be facing a side that had just lost to Raith Rovers than one that had just collected silverware.
“Sunday’s result puts more pressure on Rangers, no doubt about that,” was McNamara’s emphatic response when asked if he thought the 1-0 extra-time success for Rovers would have any effect on the semi-final.
“They will be hurting and with it being their home ground that adds to the pressure. It will be up to us to get about them early and cause them problems.
“Is playing at Ibrox a negative now (for Rangers)? I don’t know, it depends. If they’d won on Sunday, there would have been a feel-good factor.”
“It wouldn’t have defined their season but now there’s a bit more pressure on them. We’ll have a good support ourselves but it’s their home crowd and their stadium.
“They will want to get the crowd behind them and help them but at the same time we want to cause them problems and get at them.
“There is expectation on us as well, we know that. But if you look at the Rangers team they are more experienced than us, they have more games like this in their careers.”
The odds on a United win have been shortening since the final whistle was blown at Easter Road. One betting firm had them at 10-11 on, with the Light Blues as long as 14-5 against.
As relaxed aand upbeat as McNamara looked at the club’s training base in St Andrews yesterday, though, he wasn’t buying into any of that.
He said: “To me it doesn’t matter who’s favourites and who isn’t. What matters is how we play and how we take the game to Rangers.
“We give everyone respect and were perhaps guilty of giving Celtic too much of that last weekend. Regardless of who we are playing, though, I do feel that if we play to our capabilities then we can win.
“It’s about how we perform and how we handle the occasion that I’m most interested in. It’s about going out there and handling it.
“Sometimes fear can come into it when there’s pressure on you to win. Rangers have only lost two games all season and that was in extra-time so they are a team used to winning every week.
“So it’s really up to us to take the game to them.”
McNamara watched the Ramsdens Cup final from the comfort of his armchair on Sunday and felt a bit of sympathy for his opposite number Ally McCoist, who slumped to a second cup defeat to add to the League Cup loss to Forfar earlier in the season.
“I have sympathy for all managers because it’s a tough job and everyone believes they can do it,” he said.
“It is a tough job and no matter what club you are at everyone believes they can pick the team for you. But as a manager you know who you can trust, I’m the same. It’s the same everywhere.
“You get judged on results and performances in this business.”
Ideally, United would have loved to have had the option of having loan player Curtis Good available to them for Ibrox.
The Newcastle man is on the road to recovery but McNamara poured cold water on the chances of a dramatic comeback for the Australian.
He said: “We are still waiting on Curtis but I think this weekend would be too soon for him.”
Keith Watson took a knock during Saturday’s 2-0 defeat to Celtic but the feeling is he will be in his usual place come kick-off time.