I’VE A SHOT AT DOING THE TRICK
RANGERS v DUNFERMLINE
JOE CARDLE hopes he has to clear space on his wall for another souvenir as the Dunfermline winger bids to make it an Ibrox hat-trick against Rangers tonight.
Cardle, 30, has played in the Govan ground just twice before but scored on both occasions.
And he said: “I’ve got two goals in two games at Ibrox.
“One was a cup game and I scored a back-post header. I got a picture of it canvassed for the wall at home.
“The other goal was in a league game so that’s two in two and you never know.”
The downside to each occasion is the Pars lost both games.
His header pegged Dunfermline back to 3-2 in a League Cup game in 2010 but they went on to be hammered 7-2.
And the Fifers lost 2-1 because of an Alex Keddie own goal and a Nikica Jelavic penalty when he struck in a Premier League clash a year later.
But having pulled off one shock result already in the Betfred Cup, with the penalty kicks success against Hearts in the group stage, Cardle is optimistic.
He added: “The pressure’s on them, there’s no pressure on us. All eyes will be on them, their first domestic game at home and they’ll be expected to win. But it was the same situation at Hearts.
“They were expected to win that game but we fought hard and were tough to play against. We worked our socks off.
“To get results like that you need to and we’ll be willing to do that again.”
Dunfermline boss Allan Johnston agrees and insists his side’s Betfred Cup campaign won’t come to an end tonight if his team can replicate that performance.
He said: “Everybody has to be at their best.
“You want to win the tie but it is going to take a really good performance to go to Ibrox and get a result.
“It can be a hard place, especially if you don’t score early. People expect them to win quite comfortably.
“We just have to make sure we approach the game in the same manner as we did the Hearts game.”