Scottish League Cup holders Rangers begin their defence of the Scottish League Cup on Saturday when they face St Johnstone in a second-round clash at Hampden Park.
The Gers are currently playing their home matches at Scotland’s national stadium due to ongoing construction work taking place at Ibrox.
After picking up four points from their opening two Scottish Premiership games of the new season, Rangers have since crashed out of the Champions League after losing 3-1 on aggregate to Dynamo Kiev in the third qualifying round.
The Gers had Cyriel Dessers to thank for scoring a stoppage-time equaliser to rescue a 1-1 first-leg draw, but they fell to a 2-0 defeat at Hampden Park on Tuesday, with the harsh second-half dismissal of summer signing Jefte followed by two quick Dynamo Kyiv goals in the final eight minutes to end their Champions League hopes for another season.
Philippe Clement has claimed that the “decisive moment” to send off Jefte was “the worst decision I have seen in more than 30 years of football” and while he was keen to vent his frustration at the officials, the Belgian insisted that he and his players must “move on and take positive lessons” from the two-legged affair.
Rangers will now drop down into the less lucrative Europa League for the second successive season, but before they take part in that newly-expanded competition at the end of next month, they must first focus on rebuilding a positive run of form on the domestic front.
The Gers, who beat Aberdeen in last season’s Scottish League Cup final, have progressed from the second round in each of the last 10 years and will fancy their chances of success against St Johnstone, whom they have beaten by an aggregate score of 10-0 across their last five meetings.