McCoist calls for repeat performance
Rangers manager Ally McCoist has urged his players to prove they can compete with top-flight teams on a regular basis as Inverness prepare to visit Ibrox in the Scottish Communities League Cup.
Rangers beat then Clydesdale Bank Premier League leaders Motherwell 2-0 in the previous round and face another in-form SPL side in the quarter-finals.
Terry Butcher's side are the SPL top scorers with 23 goals from 11 games and are on a seven-match unbeaten run.
Ibrox had an air of defiance about it when Motherwell became the first SPL side to play Rangers since the newco club were denied entry to the top flight and forced to start again at the bottom of the Scottish Football League.
And McCoist is looking for his players to produce a similar display against the Highlanders.
"I hope they feel there is a point to prove when anyone comes to Ibrox," he said.
"To be fair the majority of home performances have been okay.
"The players are playing a team three leagues above them who have been doing very, very well.
"It is a question for our players: can they compete against boys from the top league who have been doing well?
"I'm of the belief that they can and hopefully they will, but words are cheap and they have got to show that."
McCoist added: "I would settle for the same edge and same performance that the lads gave me the last time we played an SPL team, which was obviously Motherwell.
"I think the fans will play a massive part as they have done for all our games this season, but I felt the Motherwell game, the atmosphere was almost like a European night.
"Added to the opportunity to go to Hampden, playing against another SPL side, all those factors would hopefully indicate we would have a level of performance that would see us through to the next round.
"It will be extremely difficult and as hard, if not harder, than the Motherwell game.
"I think the Motherwell boys probably didn't really know what to expect from an SFL3 team, albeit Rangers.
"The Inverness lads will have seen that performance and big Terry will have had us watched, and they will know what to expect."
Terry Butcher admits his players will have to handle the Ibrox atmosphere - but he has no fears over taking his in-form team to face Rangers.
But Caley Thistle are the SPL's top scorers with 23 goals in 11 games and were seconds away from a fourth consecutive league win on Saturday before being held by St Johnstone.
Butcher said: "The players who have played there before have been telling the others what to expect.
"It's going to be some occasion, we have to handle that first and foremost and the game will take care of itself.
"You only have to look back to when Rangers played Motherwell, and they deservedly beat Motherwell to progress, we know Rangers can be a very formidable opponent."
Source: PA
