Reynolds: At Well, we hoped we could get by against Gers.. at Dons we KNOW we can beat them

Mark Reynolds says the inferiority complex he used to feel ahead of clashes with Rangers is long gone.

The former Motherwel l defender failed to rack up a single win in 14 meetings in the Ibrox side’s previous life in the top flight, the Steelmen perennially wilting in their presence.

But as he prepared for his first crack at Rangers at Pittodrie the 29-year-old is adamant that four-and-a-half years on from his only other meeting with them in a Dons shirt – a 1-1 draw three weeks before they went into administration – he no longer accepts the role of underdog.

And it’s an attitude Reynolds knows the Red Army will love, having heard about little else in recent weeks.

He said: “This is the first time I’ll have faced Rangers at Pittodrie in an Aberdeen jersey, so you’re made aware of the history of the fixture and how much is on it.

“With the fans all talking about it it’s made into a big game. The main thing for us is when you come out and feel the atmosphere and feel how much the fans want to do well, you can feed off that.

“You always want to answer up to the crowd, to know you’re in it with them. It’s also different playing now because I’d always been in a changing room where the Rangers team was a lot stronger and you always faced them as the underdog.

“For this fixture, we’re a very strong team and a different changing room.

“At Motherwell you went into it thinking ‘I hope we can do well, I hope we can hold our own, I hope we can get a result’.

“Whereas in this changing room, we feel as if even against Celtic, who are champions, we can go and get a result. It’s the same going into this game. “W e know what’s in our changing room and if Aberdeen turn up and play well and do what we want to do then our squad have more than enough to win the game.” Ironically Reynolds c ou ld h av e b e en appearing on the other side of the fixture today, a predicted move to Rangers falling through back in 2008. At the time the Ibrox club had the money and were offering a serious chunk of it – but Motherwell didn’t need it and knocked it back. Changed days for both clubs. Reynolds said: “They bid just before the credit crunch. “I think it was £ 750,000 or something. That was the end of