DJ: No excuses as Rangers players must be up for kick-off

The Ramsdens Cup first-round fixture against Albion Rovers is the game that Rangers have to win, this is when the pressure is on.

I can remember pre-season campaigns when we struggled and got hammered by teams and then we went on and won the league and had a successful season. Getting it right for the first day of the season is the important thing.

It is from now on in that they will be judged by the fans and the pressure will be on.

All the build-up has been geared towards beating Albion Rovers and getting off to a good start – and that is what Rangers must do this weekend.

I think the fact that the game has been switched to Livingston's Energy Assets Arena from Cliftonhill will help Rangers.

With the greatest of respect, Cliftonhill is not one of the nicest grounds in the country. At Livi, there should be a good atmosphere and a decent surface for Rangers to look to move the ball about.

It will certainly suit the players a lot better. I think it was the right thing to do to move the game along the M8 and hopefully it will be a good spectacle for the fans and the television cameras.

I'm sure there will be a lot of fans tuning it to the game because it will be their first chance to see the team in action this season and see some of the new players wearing the Rangers jersey.

It will be interesting to see how Ally lines the team up, what shape will he go for and which of his new signings will appear as trialists?

He is limited in the number of trialists he can play in each game and the number of matches each of his seven new players can feature in until their registration embargo is lifted on September 1, so it will be a juggling act for him to get the most out of his squad for the next few weeks.

He will be relying on mostly the same players that he had last season and will know they will have be strong from middle to front because the defence was far from convincing at times last year.

They are going to have to score a few goals because there is a fear that they are susceptible to losing goals. Defence is certainly an area that needed strengthening and Ally will be working on bringing more players in.

He has made seven signings so far and there is going to be far more competition for places this season. There is a great incentive for the players that were there last year in the first few weeks of the season.

They have got to use these first few games to stake their claim for a place because they know that there are players waiting in the wings ready to come in on September 1.

Ally has got two players for each position and a very good squad at his disposal. I think we will see a far better team than the one that won the Third Division last season.

Rangers rounded off their pre-season schedule with a 1-0 defeat at Hillsborough on Wednesday night but Ally won't read too much into the result. Of course it is always better to be winning games than losing games, but hopefully the results and performances in pre-season will have given the players a confidence boost.

The biggest factor for me is Rangers have been keeping clean sheets. That was a real problem last year so to start with five shut-outs in a row is a big boost.

It is good Cammy Bell has got off to a solid start as No.1 and it looks as though trialist Bilel Mohsni has made a real impression as well. All the signs have been promising but it is on Sunday where we will see just how far the team have come over the summer.

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