MARK WARBURTON is pleased with the mentality of his Rangers players after putting the Light Blues squad through their paces in recent days.

Rangers will kick-off their season on July 25 but have been handed the toughest tie possible in the Petrofac Training Cup after being paired with title rivals Hibernian.

Warburton met the Ibrox squad for the first time on Saturday as the Gers returned to pre-season action.

And the Ibrox boss reckons the early signs are encouraging as the preparations continue for the new campaign.

Warburton said: “Any trophy we go into, and it doesn’t matter what it is, we go in to win it.

“That’s the right thing to do, and if you don’t do that, it’s a weak mentality.

“We’ve got a good programme leading up to the start of the season, so it’s imperative for us to prepare well and we look forward to the game.

“The boys are back in and are training well. There is a lot of work ahead of us, but their mentality and approach so far has been outstanding.”

With the clock ticking to his first game in charge, time is of the essence for Warburton as he and assistant David Weir continue to work towards the big kick-off.

Rangers saw off Alan Stubbs’ side in the first round of the Petrofac Training Cup last season before being humbled by Alloa in the semi-finals as they missed out on the silverware for a third time.

Hibs have already made steps to improve since last term as Stubbs bids for promotion at the second time of asking.

But Warburton won’t fret over the threat their Capital rivals will cause when they make the trip to Easter Road next month.

“We’ll prepare the same as we would any other game,” he told rangers.co.uk.

“Obviously we respect who we’re playing every single time, but it’s not going to change our focus or our preparation. We’ll get ready the best we can every single time we play.

“It’s really important from our perspective that we don’t prepare any differently. Our mindset has to be the same for every game that we go into, and we have to recognise that if our standards drop, we’ll have a problem.

“It’s really important that we set our standards exceptionally high, prepare well for the game and then take that on to hopefully delivering a good performance.

“I’m not going to turn around and say I have an in-depth knowledge of Hibs, but my knowledge is decent.

“I’ll look at their games in the coming weeks, but it is about us. Yes, we’ll do our homework, but it is about us looking to impose ourselves on every game that we play.”