No fear of Rangers for Queen of the South boss as play-off push looms

Rangers may be sat comfortably at the head of the Ladbrokes Championship, but their next opponents are set to come into the weekend’s fixture full of beans.

Ahead of the clash on Sunday Queen of the South boss James Fowler described the confidence his Doonhamers side could bring into the fixture.

“Rangers are a good team, they’ve got good players and a big budget to work with as well, but we feel we’ve got players that can go and compete,” he told the Capital City Press.

Despite 1-5 and 2-1 defeats the last two times the sides met in the league, the Queens boss is happy with how his side performed on those occasions.

“We’ve done OK against them this year,” he said.

“In the first home game we got a red card that was later rescinded and that affected the game. They scored a last minute winner at Ibrox as well so we know we can compete.”

Ladbrokes have the hosts priced up as 13/2 for victory at Palmerston Park, the chance of which can only of been increased by the injury to Gers striker Martyn Waghorn.

The forward has netted 20 times in the league this season, three of those against Queen of the South, so with the former Leicester man on the sidelines, Mark Warburton’s men will need to find someone else to lead the line.

Even without their white-hot attacker the Glasgow outfit will be a tough nut to crack at the weekend, with eight victories in their last 10 in all competitions.

However, Fowler’s talk of competing with Rangers on the pitch will need to be put into action, with Queens holding on to the fourth and final play-off position.

They are two points clear of Raith Rovers and have games in hand on much of the chasing pack, so any extra points they can pick up at home to the leaders will undoubtedly increase their play-off hopes.

“I know there’s going to be lots of twists and turns. St Mirren, Raith and Morton are all in the mix so we know it’s tough but we feel we’ve got the players that can do it if everyone plays to their maximum,” Fowler declared.

Victory against the Gers on Sunday will undoubtedly be one of those aforementioned twists in the promotion race as far as Queens are concerned.

All odds and markets correct as of the date of publishing.