RANGERS DON’T SCARE QUEENS MEN, SAYS FOWLER

JAMES FOWLER last night insisted his Queen of the South players have nothing to fear against Rangers. The 34-year-old was named Championship Manager of the Month for April after wins over Rangers and Hibs helped Queens finish fourth and qualify for the play-offs. And with two wins and a draw in his side’s four matches against the Ibrox men, Fowler insists the Doonhamers are not merely there to make up the numbers in the end-of-season showcase matches. ‘Rangers have been on a good run, but we’re at home and we’ve got a decent record against them,’ said Fowler, ahead of Saturday evening’s quarter-final first leg at Palmerston Park. ‘We’ll take confidence from the results and performances against them this season. ‘We don’t want to just go through the motions. We have shown we can compete against Rangers and Hibs this season, so if we can get through the Rangers game we will look forward to Hibs as well. ‘We know it’s going to be difficult with all the games in a short space of time and with the size of squad we have. But as Hamilton showed last year in going up, anything can happen. ‘Once you’re in there and you’ve got the momentum, you can get at these big teams and the pressure shifts to them. We would love to progress.’ Fowler also admitted that the plastic pitch in Dumfries was an advantage to his men. ‘Sometimes, mentally, for other teams coming here, players don’t like the surface as much,’ said Fowler, who replaced Ross County-bound Jim McIntyre in the Palmerston hot seat in September. ‘It’s an excellent surface for playing football on but I think sometimes players don’t like it in terms of (the effect on) their body. ‘For one-off games, it shouldn’t be an issue for the teams coming. ‘But we enjoy the surface, that’s our home advantage. If you go to Ibrox and there are 50,000 fans, that’s an advantage for them. ‘We’re within the rules so, if we can use it to our advantage, we will take that. ‘We are going into a twogame situation. Hopefully, we’ll take an advantage to Ibrox and put the pressure on Rangers. I wouldn’t mind if we had a 2-0 or 3-0 lead going to Ibrox next week…’