Wallace keen for Gers to keep up momentum

Lee Wallace has urged Rangers to take care of business against Partick Thistle and ensure the Light Blues swagger into their showdown with Celtic.

Rangers have a doubleheader against Alan Archibald’s men coming up, with a Ladbrokes Premiership trip to the Jags tonight preceding Tuesday’s Firhill return for the Betfred Cup quarter-final.

Wallace knows once those clashes are out of the way, the countdown to the opening Old Firm duel of the season on September 23 will begin in earnest.

However, after putting their troubled start to the campaign behind them with back-to-back wins over Ross County and Dundee, the club captain reckons his side are hitting form at just the right time.

“Yes we are,” he said. “We know first and foremost we’ve got two difficult games against Thistle who’ll be looking for their first win of the league season.

“They have caused us problems before and we realise they’ve got a couple of good individuals that will be threats.

“We’ll look to try and win both games and take it from there.”

Boss Pedro Caixinha has made 11 new signings this summer and it will be a vastly different Rangers line-up facing the Hoops next weekend to the squad twice thrashed 5-1 by their bitter rivals last term.

But Wallace insists he does not have to spell out the importance of the upcoming derby clash to any of Caixinha’s foreign recruits.

He said: “The new guys can see what next week’s game is all about for themselves.

“Obviously the fact Celtic were playing in a Champions League game this week against a top-class opponent shows where they are now.

“So there’ll be no need to say too much. Once we get Thistle out of the way the build-up will start and we all know the intensity that surrounds that game.“

Caixinha has no injury problems ahead of the game while Jags keeper Tomas Cerny is rated at just 50/50 after suffering a muscle strain in his stomach against Ross County last week.

Lee Wallace is targeting backto-back victories over Partick.