Warburton happy with his players’ readiness despite objection to cup format

Mark Warburton last night expressed satisfaction with Rangers’ state of readiness for their return to the top flight of Scottish football after watching them cruise into the last 16 of the Betfred Cup.

Despite his opposition to the newformatofthetournament, which he repeated after a 3-0 win over Stranraer clinched top spot in Group F with maximum points from their four matches, the Rangers manager is content with the condition of his team ahead of the Premiership kick-off on 6 August.

“I still think the League Cup format is inappropriate with four games in nine days for us,” said Warburton. “But all of the squad have had pitch time now, we’ve come through unscathed in terms of injuries and had four clean sheets, so there are plenty of positives. We are in a good place.”

Warburton’s only gripe on the night was with a heavy challenge by Ryan Thomson on Niko Kranjcar which earned the Stranraer man a booking.

Kranjcar, who scored his first goal for Rangers to add to Martyn Waghorn’s double, recovered after treatment.

“It was a bad tackle but Niko got up and, touch wood, is fine,” said Warburton. “But you don’t win 80 caps for Croatia and not be able to look after himself, don’t worry about that.”

Stranraer could still join Rangers in the last 16 if they can win at home to Motherwell on Saturday and remain in contention to progress as one of the four best runnersup from the eight groups.

“We have been unlucky to land two Premiership teams in our group,” said Stranraer manager Brian Reid. “But we will look to give Motherwell a hard game at Stair Park and give ourselves a chance.

“We made it hard for ourselves tonight, diving in to concede a penalty after five minutes. It was a football lesson at times – you can see what a good side Rangers are and they move the ball so well.”