Hamilton will need to rediscover their relentless work ethic if they are to have any chance of causing an upset against Rangers, according to midfielder Greg Docherty.

The Accies were torn apart late on in their last visit to Ibrox just a couple of weeks ago, eventually going down by six goals to nil before conceding another four at Tynecastle last Saturday.

Docherty is sure though that his side can unearth the team spirit and togetherness that earned them a surprise draw against the light blues in the opening game of the season.

“We would certainly take a repeat of that first day of the season at Ibrox,” Docherty said. We keep talking about these difficult fixtures but that’s football and we need to deal with it.

“Our work ethic was the main thing on day one of the season, we all knew our jobs and what we were doing and things went our way.

“We rode our luck at times but we still had chances and certainly deserved a point. We stuck together and we can take heart from it.

“We didn’t defend well in the recent Scottish Cup game and that let us down.

“You know you will be under the cosh at places like Ibrox and they were up for it but we didn’t turn up. It was really disappointing from our perspective.”

As if a visit to face Rangers on their own patch isn’t a daunting enough assignment for Hamilton, they seem to have a knack of aligning the timing of their matches there with landmark occasions for the home side.

Docherty knows that getting a result may depend on the Accies players being able to block out what is happening off the pitch, as much as dealing with the challenges they face on it.

“The focus was all on Joey Barton in that first day and now it’s a new manager - these situations seem to come up when we’re due to visit Ibrox,” he said.

“But it’s exciting for us. We can’t hide and there’s no reason we can’t get another good result.

“There is going to be so much focus on the game with the new Rangers manager and we need to try and make amends for our last visit.

“We have watched the video back and can see where we went wrong and need to try and correct our mistakes. It will be a sell-out crowd and another good atmosphere and we have to prove that we’re a better team than the last two games show.

“We did it at the start of the season in a game that was hyped up because it was their first match back in the top flight.

“We have made basic errors but we won’t dig anyone out. We’ve got massive games coming up and we must stick together rather than singling anyone out.”