Michael Beale has named his Rangers team to face Partick Thistle as they bid to secure their spot in the quarter-final draw.
The Light Blues are the current holders of the competition and they defeated Premiership rivals St Johnstone by a single Borna Barisic goal to get to this stage. Six teams have already booked their place in the last eight draw and the Ibrox men will be hoping to join them. It's been a solid start to life for the new management north of the border and they are yet to taste defeat.
It would be a huge upset for Ian McCall and his troops to defeat the holders in their own backyard but it's the Scottish Cup and after Darvel's win over Aberdeen, the message will be clear from Beale and Co to not take their Scottish Championship opponents lightly. Speaking ahead of this fifth round showdown, the Rangers boss said: "It's massively important. We want to pay respect to how important it is to us as a club and the competition as well. It's a competition that we won after a number of years, and it's one of the trophies that we feel we can win again this year.
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"There's a huge [motivation]. We're in one cup final and, by the end of the season, we like to think we can be in another one. The competition is really important for us. We're four wins away from a trophy, that's how we see it. We need to make sure that we perform to our best on Sunday to make sure we're one less game towards one.
"You never know how many years you have left in the game. Regardless of where you are in your career, we're a club that thinks we can win and get to cup finals. We have one to look forward to and we want to add another one, and ultimately when you get there you want to be picking up the trophy as well. It's relentless when you're at this club. Since I've came back, we've played 12 games and won 11. We have to keep winning."
He continued: "I look at Partick Thistle's squad and they have a lot of Scottish Premiership experience. I think it will be an interesting game. They're bringing 2,500 fans which shows the support that they've got. We just need to keep pushing our standards and not dropping from it in terms of our attitude and energy. I'm still looking for a greater level of performance, albeit at times we have played very well. I still want to push for more.
"It's quite nice. You play the same teams in the division three, sometimes four, times per season. Then if you draw them in the cup it can become a bit of a Groundhog Day because you know so much about each other and it can make for a stuffy game. It's nice to play a team who is not in our league, but also knowing that they have nothing to lose coming to Ibrox. I'm sure that's what Ian McCall will be telling his team, and we have everything to gain as well. It's important we play justice to the importance that it has for us at Rangers.”
Rangers XI: McGregor, Tavernier, Sands, Davies, Barisic, Kamara, Raskin, Cantwell, Tillman, Hagi, Colak.
Subs: McLaughlin, Goldson, Jack, Kent, Morelos, Wright, Roofe, King, Devine.
Partick Thistle XI: Sneddon, McMillan, Milne, Holt, Turner, Tiffoney, Bannigan, Graham, Hodson, McAvoy, Muirhead.
Subs: Mitchell, Brownlie, Dowds, Lawless, Smith, Mullen, Fitzpatrick, Docherty, MacKenzie.
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