CONOR Sammon is relishing the challenge of going up against Bruno Alves at Firhill tonight, saying that he and his Partick Thistle teammates are out to prove they are more than a match for Rangers.
The hulking forward has yet to find the net in his fledgling Thistle career, but he has a decent goalscoring record against the Ibrox side.
And while he isn’t sure of the level of Pedro Caixinha’s newly-assembled team, he is more than positive that the Jags can pose them problems with the quality that they possess.
“I love having the opportunity of going toe to toe with someone like Alves, I’ll relish that,” said Sammon.
“His career has been impressive both at club and international level.
“This is a real opportunity to have a go against players like that and for us as a group to show our quality against that quality of opposition as well.
“It’s hard to know what level Rangers are now at. Even though we know all about Alves, there are players who have been signed that personally I had never heard of, so I don’t know that much about them.
“We will find out more about certain individuals on Friday night and we can only plan for what we have seen of them so far this season.
“We need to focus on ourselves as well which is important because we have good quality and we feel we can cause them problems as well.”
As well as scoring twice against Rangers in his Kilmarnock days, Sammon was part of the Hearts side who thumped Mark Warburton’s team at Tynecastle back in February.
He is hoping that he can continue his good personal record under the Firhill floodlights this evening.
“I have scored a few against Rangers in the past, which was nice,” he said. “I don’t see why Friday night can’t be the time for me to score my first goal for Partick in front of our home fans as well.
“I’m looking forward to the opportunity of getting on the scoresheet and trying to help us get the three points that we’re looking for.”
Thistle boss Alan Archibald says there is a determination within his squad to make amends for squandering points against Rangers at Firhill last season.
The Jags lost late goals in both games to throw away points, and despite the turnover of players under Pedro Caixinha, Archibald knows that the pedigree in the Rangers ranks could punish any lapses once again.
“The lads are well aware of what happened then but it just goes to show what can happen when you have that quality on the pitch,” Archibald said.
“It doesn’t matter how many minutes are on the clock; you’ve got to be switched on against good opposition. They proved in both of those games that quality players can pop up at any time and either create something or score.
“We know we did well in those matches but this is a different Rangers side now. There’s been a massive turnaround in players and they play in a different style, too, but we’re ready for that challenge.”
Much of the talk prior to the game has centred upon Rangers having the chance to go top tonight, but a victory for winless Thistle is arguably more important to their own cause.
“Any win would be good at the moment – I don’t think it matters who it comes against,” Archibald added.
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