Ibrox side show they’re Well up for big kick-off

Neil Lennon’s Hibs to Ibrox the following week.

Following the shock Euro exit, this was a chance for the Light Blue legions to enjoy an away day and an astonishing 8000-strong travelling army descended on south Yorkshire.

And on the park it was the final chance for Caixinha’s men to show they were over the Progres debacle.

Gers had made small steps since that calamitous defeat in Luxembourg with this the last of four hastily arranged pre-season friendlies.

Defeat by St Johnstone at Murray Park didn’t offer much hope of better things to come but they improved after that.

A creditable draw against Marseille at Ibrox was followed by a win against Premier League side Watford.

Caixinha had called in a favour from the Hornets’ Portuguese boss Marco Silva to fix up that game and another compatriot, Carlos Carvalhal, helped him out with this fixture.

The Owls missed out on promotion to the top flight after losing in the play-off semi-finals to Huddersfield last season but they are among the contenders to win the English Championship. Ally McCoist’s Ibrox side went down to a 1-0 defeat in a friendly here four years ago and Gers knew they were in for a stiff test exactly a week before their league opener against Motherwell. Caixinha started with pretty much his strongest line-up with the exception of Niko Kranjcar who was on the bench and James Tavernier who picked up a foot injury in training. The home side had seven players in their squad with a Scottish connection – international caps George Boyd, Barry Bannan, Ross Wallace and Jordan Rhodes all starting alongside ex-Celt Gary Hooper. And Steven Fletcher was joined on the bench by former Parkhead stopper Glenn Loovens in a strong home line-up. Windass has struggled to make an impact but – watched by dad Dean in the crowd – he made a bright start and looked a threat on the left. He was at the heart of a good move that saw Eduardo Herrera put the ball in the net only for the offside flag to go up. Candeias also looked lively enough but he picked up a needless booking midway through the first half after ignoring referee Ross Joyce who MIDDLE MAN Graham Dorrans