Source: Team_Talk
Naismith relishing Leverkusen game
Steven Naismith is relishing Rangers' friendly against Bayer Leverkusen despite their recent defeats to two lower league sides in Germany.[LNB] Sportfreunde Lotte and Bochum have both proved too strong for Ally McCoist's men, who now turn their attention to facing a side who finished second in the Bundesliga last season and who have former Chelsea midfielder Michael Ballack in their squad.[LNB]Naismith is confident Rangers will raise their game for the third match of their summer's pre-season trip to Lower Saxony, although he believes the most important friendlies are yet to come.[LNB]"The Leverkusen game is definitely one that excites you," the Scotland striker told the club's official website.[LNB]"The two games we have out here have been quality but I'm sure Leverkusen will provide our toughest test yet.[LNB]"We'll have to tighten up at the back and hopefully we can get off the mark ourselves by scoring goals as well.[LNB]"Lotte and Bochum are a few games ahead of us in terms of their preparation and maybe that showed.[LNB]"The results have been disappointing and the goals we have lost have been slack, but now is the time to make these mistakes.[LNB]"The manager has gone over the games and looked at where we went wrong so we know what we need to do."[LNB]"In saying that, all the players got 45 minutes against Lotte and when you make that many changes at half-time it definitely disrupts the team," Naismith continued.[LNB]"Bochum were sharper than us but again they had played six or seven matches prior to facing us.[LNB]"But we have definitely benefited from our two games in terms of the running we have had to do and already we are looking stronger.[LNB]"The game against Leverkusen will be the next step in our pre-season training although the most important matches will be the ones coming up once we get back home from Germany.[LNB]"That's when we will have to start building a bit of momentum before our opening SPL fixture against Hearts."