Stubbs reveals top tactic to attack Ibrox full-back

BY GRAEME YOUNG caught Tavernier up the field. We managed to win the ball and to set Stokes off in the area highlighted. From that position Stokes has picked up the ball, cut inside and scored.

“Another area we thought we could have success in was if we could get in at Rangers’ two centre-halves.

“Luckily enough it seemed to work for us. Stokes found some space in the area and was able to curl one in the bottom corner early on.”

The equaliser and winner both came from setand pieces Stubbs knew it was paramount to get the better of Rangers in those situations.

He added: “If we had any set-pieces it would give us an opportunity to exploit any weakness Rangers had.

“We felt the front area of Rangers’ post was where they seemed to have conceded a couple of goals throughout the season, well, more than a couple of goals.

“We had David Gray, Anthony Stokes, Darren McGregor and Liam Fontaine who would be up to attack the ball.

“Liam Henderson, who we had brought on, was a fantastic deliverer of the ball and we knew if we could get it in the areas we had worked on then we hopefully would have an opportunity to try to exploit that area. “As a manager sometimes you can work on certain things but when it does come off it’s a great satisfaction for the work you have put in the lead-up to such a big game.”

The Championship sides had thrilled with crackers earlier that season but Stubbs believed his side had the advantage in two key areas.

His decision to start with a 3-5-2 would allow his side to quell the threat posed by Barrie McKay and Martyn Waghorn, enabling John McGinn to gain the advantage in the engine room.

Stubbs said: “We probably had a similar mindset. Over the season it had been very close between the teams.

“We’d both played four and won two each but we felt when we’d played with three at the back it gave us a more defensive stability.

“Rangers were a very offensive team, they would play with a 4-3-3. It was a wide and expansive type of game. So we wanted to have some superiority in the backline and also in the middle of the pitch.

“We wanted to try to counteract Rangers’ two wide players because they wanted to play high up the pitch and push teams back.

“The midfield area was probably the strongest part of our team and we knew our three against Rangers’ three could have a lot of joy.”