MARK WARBURTON, the Rangers manager, insists victory over Falkirk this afternoon will not mean the Championship title is destined for Ibrox this season. Rangers will move 12 points clear of second-placed Falkirk if they can record their ninth successive league win when they face Peter Houston’s side.
With Hibernian, who have a game in hand against the Bairns to come, already trailing by 11 points, Rangers are in a commanding position in the title race as they look to win promotion back to the Premiership at the second time of asking.
Stephen Aitken, the Dumbarton boss, claimed Rangers could be crowned champions by February if they can keep up their relentless run of form and further extend their advantage in the coming weeks. But Warburton has played down talk of any early promotion party as he looks to round off the first quarter of the campaign with another victory this afternoon.
“I’m really pleased,” Warburton said. “The players have worked really hard. There have been a couple of injuries so hopefully they will have time to shake them off.
“It’s a big game on Saturday because they are the nearest team to is so we want a big performance. That’s our biggest danger. Someone said if you win on Saturday you’ve won the league.
“That’s absolute nonsense. Complacency is the biggest weapon against us.The biggest danger to us is us and that’s not being arrogant. If we just focus on putting on a good performance we can be 11 or 12 points clear with Falkirk and Hibs to play each other. But we must retain our focus.
“Far from it, that’s disrespectful to other teams [to say we will win the league in February]. There are a lot of tough games and tough venues coming up in winter. It’s all well and good in August but the middle of February is a different proposition. So we need to be prepared because there are tough games ahead.”
Warburton will have to make at least one change to his starting line-up from the side that beat Morton last weekend after Gedion Zelalem joined up with the USA Under-23 squad.
Nathan Oduwa and Fraser Aird have been called up to represent England and Canada respectively in the coming days and Warburton has decided to postpone the Petrofac Training Cup quarter final with Livingston that was due to be played on Friday night.
“We are going to work hard Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and the boys will get four days off and back in the following Monday,” Warburton said. “It’s a good chance to give them time off to recharge the batteries. We have lost players on international duty so that’s why we called off the game and it’s a good chance for the boys to get a rest.”
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