MARK WARBURTON is confident Rangers will be in prime shape for their shot at Scottish Cup glory after their friendly clash with Tottenham tomorrow.

The Light Blues travelled south of the border on Tuesday afternoon and will face a Spurs select side at their Enfield training base before returning to Murray Park.

Boss Warburton gave his players a few days off in the aftermath of their final Championship clash of the campaign against St Mirren but sights are now firmly fixed on their Hampden return.

Rangers have formed a strong working relationship with Mauricio Pochettino’s side in recent months and defender Dominic Ball has impressed during a loan spell at Ibrox.

Spurs narrowly missed out on landing the Premier League title this term and Warburton is pleased to have lined-up a useful run-out for his side.

He said: “It’s important for us in terms of it being the final game before the cup final, so that is the obvious benefit of that.

“We’re very thankful to Spurs for their hospitality, they are a tremendous club and we can learn a lot from Tottenham.

“I know I’m talking as a Spurs fan here but forget the bias, their academy is first class with a number of players coming through.

“You look at [Harry] Kane, [Tom] Carroll, [Ryan] Mason and the [Tom] Huddlestones and the [Jake] Livermores etc. [Nabil] Bentaleb is now coming through and [Alex] Pritchard.

“It’s a fantastic academy. We have Dom Ball here who’s been a credit to Spurs and to himself of course.

“Dom has come up and the players are hungry, so we are delighted to have a good relationship with Spurs and we’ll go down there and look forward to what will be a very challenging game.

“We’ll find out [what strength the Tottenham side will be], but whatever it will be it will be a technically gifted, very athletic team.

“It’s always a stern challenge and it’s a magnificent training base – one of the very best in Europe, there’s no doubt about that.

“So we know it will be tough test and it’s what we need, we need that sharpener and that will hold us in good stead for the 21st.”

The Enfield friendly is the latest tie-up between Warburton and Spurs in a relationship that stretches back several years to the Englishman’s time as the head of the NextGen series.

And he reckons it is good to talk as he looks to reap the rewards of forging significant contacts at White Hart Lane.

Warburton told rangers.co.uk: “I was very fortunate through the NextGen tournament to deal closely with people like John McDermott (Spurs’ Head of Coaching & Player Development), Dean Rastrick (Academy Manager) and Ugo Ehiogu (Under-21 Head Coach).

“It was really good to chat to them and I had good conversations on many occasions.

“I saw their development process for young players, I saw how they give them an opportunity, how they challenge them, so I was delighted to work closely with Tottenham at that tournament and then take it forward from there.

“We’ve taken players in the past, we had young Alex Pritchard at Brentford last year, Dom Ball this year, so again this shows that we can create that environment that is conducive to the players’ development and hopefully strengthen the relationship with Tottenham.”