Louis Longridge says that Hamilton don’t fear Rangers, and he believes they can take advantage of the extra pressure on them following their Old Firm defeat to pile the misery on Pedro Caixinha.

The winger says that all the pressure going into the game is on the shoulders of the players in light blue, and he hopes that some of their new recruits struggle with the culture shock of their surroundings when they visit the smallest club in the division.

And if Accies are at the top of their pressing game, he reckons they can make life more than uncomfortable for the Ibrox side on their visit to Lanarkshire.

“The negative result against Celtic means that their manager will want them to bounce back and there’s more pressure on them to come here and get the result against Accies - a supposed wee club,” Longridge said. “I think there’s added pressure on them.

“We hope they have a culture shock and they are not happy putting up with what could be a cold Friday night.

“If they are on the ball and everything clicks they will make it hard, but by the same token, if we put in the work and stick to the basics then we can get a positive result. We won’t focus on Rangers - we’ll stick to what we do and hope we can get the result.

“The manager drills it into us that we have to make it hard for opponents. I don’t think for a second that they will come here thinking it’s easy and we have to make sure it’s difficult.

“We’ve shown against Hibs we could compete and get in their faces and we got the win.

“We don’t fear them. We believe we can get a positive result against them. We don’t fear Rangers coming here.”

Longridge knows that most of the focus in the build-up to this week’s Friday night football will centre on the visitors and the importance of a win to Rangers, but Hamilton have their own motivations to get the three points.

Martin Canning’s men have lost their last two matches against Hearts and St Johnstone, but came away from both feeling they should have got more.

And Longridge doesn’t want another hard luck story against Rangers, stressing that points are the only currency worth anything in this division.

“It’s not just Rangers - we’re trying to get points on the board so we’re not in the position we were in last season,” he said.

“We don’t think about not having beaten Rangers - it’s just another three points. We don’t want to be in a position like last season when we got ahead in games, lost goals and then ended up in the play-offs.

“We look at it as another game to get maximum points.

“[The manager] was a bit disappointed after the game. I think it was just down to the fact that we were the better team for 60 minutes and for whatever reason we stopped playing.

“That allowed St Johnstone to get belief as previously we had been in control. We should have killed the game off in 60 minutes.

“When we didn’t take anything from Saturday you wonder what difference a point or three points would make come the end of the season.

“We know how vital that is for us and we look to get a positive result against Rangers on Friday.”

If Hamilton are to upset Rangers, they will have to do it without the suspended Darian MacKinnon.

“He’s a huge player for us,” said Longridge. “We might miss his presence in midfield. Greg Docherty is box to box and Ali Crawford is outstanding, but not the most aggressive.”