HAMILTON’S defenders will be ready, prepared and waiting for anything Rangers’ combative striker Joe Garner throws at them.

The Ibrox centre-forward has quickly earned a reputation of playing on the edge and being fond of a dig off the ball, and word in the ear, of any poor sod whose job it is to mark him.

To be fair to Garner, he quite happily admits openly that the physical side of the game is a big part of him - and there is nothing wrong with that - and while his form has been up and down, his ability to wind up an opponent has been sharp from the off.

Accies are hardly a small team and yet the back four will have to put in a shift to keep the Rangers frontman’s quiet.

Hamilton boss said: “You’ve got to make sure you compete and make it difficult for him because he’ll do that for you.

“That’s just part of your job as a centre-back, you’ll play against different types, whether it’s a big tall guy who is good in the air or if it’s a small guy who is kind of nippier and looks to get in behind you.

“But, whatever, if it’s a striker who is physical and tries to dominate you then you have to suss it out.

“That’s what we’ll do this morning. We’ll go through our analysis, we’ll show the players what he’s got and what we’ll be looking for the defenders to do against him.

“When you go over that white line it’s about you going out there and competing.”

Canning was a no-nonsense centre-back in his day and yet even he fell victim to a striker’s dark acts – even if the opponent in question was more known for his niceness than slyness.

Canning said: “The mind-games are part of football. A lot of players do that, they talk to you during the game.

“I remember a long time ago, Owen Coyle being a nice man and chatting away to me. He’d say ‘Ah, big man, you’re doing well, you’ve done great.....bang, goal!’ I was left stunned and thinking ‘what happened there?’

“There he was that interested in you, saying good things, I’m thinking it was very nice of him — then suddenly he’s got across me and scored. I learned from that."

Hamilton are playing okay at the moment even if they draw too many games. On Tuesday they lost at Celtic Park, hardly shameful, but put in a performance which offers a lot of encouragement ahead of tonight’s visit of Rangers.

And the fact this game is in Lanarkshire is not unimportant because no team likes that surface. Mark Warburton his certainly no fan.

Canning said: “Teams will always say that when they come and play on an astro pitch, for whatever reason they don’t like coming here.

“But we enjoy playing here. I think it’s a good pitch.

“To be fair, the one thing I’d say about this season is that the pitches have been great. I don’t know if the weather’s helped but the standard of pitches has been excellent.

“At this time of the year, ours is a true surface, you know what you’re going to get with it.

"You’re able to get the ball down and pass it, you’re able to play on it. There will be no bobbles, it’s a nice pitch to play on.

“Maybe it’s his (Warburton) way of trying to motivate his players and making sure they’re ready for the challenge, it’s a different type of challenge for them. We’ve got to be ready, too, and take it to them.”