HE has lived through the Rangers nightmare. Now Lee Wallace is daring to dream.

Every step of the way along the road to recovery, he has lead by example at Ibrox. Today at Hampden the captain hopes to inspire his side to victory and a significant leap forward.

In the darkest days, few would have envisaged the light at the end of the tunnel would be joined by the famous Scottish Cup silverware. A unique Treble and European football are in Rangers’ sights, but a familiar foe stands in their way.

Mark Warburton’s side have proven over the course of the campaign that they are a better side than Hibernian, but this is an occasion unlike anything he or many of his players have experienced.

When Wallace moved to Ibrox five years ago, he would have had visions of regularly competing for top flight titles and playing in cup finals at the National Stadium.

The reality, of course, has been somewhat different. But the Light Blues captain can dream of what lies ahead as Rangers bid for their third medal this term.

“Yes, for sure, you visualise these things,” he said. “You look to moments like this in your career.

“We have obviously been blessed in terms of the season we’ve already had.

“It’s been a good season, but if all goes well on May 21, we can turn it into a great season.

“Of course you visualise these moments, you do so as a player because you’ve done so since you were a little boy.

“The guys in the dressing room are no different. Collectively we know what we need to do.”

If Wallace climbs the Hampden stairs and holds aloft the silverware in front of the Light Blue legions today, it would be the finest moment of his career and one to savour for everyone at Ibrox.

At the start of the campaign, the main focus was, and had to be, the Championship crown, but the lure of cup silverware has grown as each opponent has been dispatched.

Now, it is only Hibernian that remain for Rangers to overcome. A good season could become a great one.

Wallace said: “I started to generate that belief after the manager first spoke to us.

“After suffering the disappointment we did last year, it quickly turned to looking forward to things again and looking forward to what can be.

“Cup finals naturally are going to be part of that, especially Scottish Cup finals, because there are not many of us in the dressing room who have made it to a cup final.

“We managed to do that this season with the Petrofac, we were expected to go and do well and we managed to deliver.

“We were expected to lift the Championship and we did that in style and by a number of points. I am not sure we were expected to win the Scottish Cup.

“We know in house what our goal was at the start of the season and a lot of questions came about after the St Johnstone result.

“There were questions whether we could play this style of play against Premiership opposition but we have been able to do that on three occasions since that.

“Of course it would be a dream for everyone in the dressing room to cap off what would become a great season.”

There are few people at Ibrox that know what Scottish Cup success would mean to the club and the supporters more than Wallace. The Journey has been gruelling, and it would a fitting way to end it at Hampden.

Hibernian will head to the National Stadium with the weight of history on their shoulders as they look to end their hoodoo and more than a century of cup agony.

It is the thought of the elation that will inspire Warburton’s players when they stride out onto the hallowed turf once again, though.

He said: “It means the world. We know in a football sense that it is just another game for us, Hibs are just another opponent that are trying to stop us from winning a cup final.

“We are aware of everything else that is at stake in terms of them and their history, but we are also aware of what we can do in terms of the journey for the guys that have been there, suffered the drop, been part of the process to get us back to where we should be playing.

“We have managed to do that, we have got the Petrofac along the way, and we can now make it a really great season if all goes well. It is certainly one we are confident of but we are aware of their threat as well.”

Victory for Rangers would cap off a campaign to remember and give Warburton’s side another lift heading into their Premiership title challenge.

The Light Blues will not face Hibs on league duty next term after they suffered a play-off semi-final defeat to Falkirk last week.

And Wallace knows their former promotion rivals will be determined to end a mixed campaign on a high note.

He said: “We are expecting Hibs to try and rectify the disappointment of not getting promoted to the top flight.

“We are aware of that, aware of the games we have played against them in the past. We know it is two good teams that like to play football the right way, or what they deem the right way.

“We know it will be a difficult game, but I keep referring back to that if we hit our levels then we know what will happen in the game. It is up to us to do that.

“We have said it on a number of occasions, we have managed to show it on a number of occasions and on this last occasions it is, rather than saying it, about going out and doing it.

“We feel in that dressing room that if we hit our level of performance, which is a phrase the manager uses all the time, we will fine in the game.”