ST MIRREN’S Calum Waters will enjoy the crowd scenes when he returns to a packed Ibrox to play Rangers tonight.
The 23-year-old defender was on loan at Dumbarton from Celtic, where he started his career, when he first tasted the experience.
Rangers were coming through the leagues after financial problems in 2012 saw them re-emerge in the bottom tier.
There were 48,568 inside Ibrox on April 5, 2016 when Rangers beat the Sons 1-0 to seal the Championship title and promotion into the top flight. Waters, on a second loan spell in Paisley from Kilmarnock, recalled: “I’ve only started one game at Ibrox and it was at Dumbarton when I was 19 on loan from Celtic.
“It was really good actually as it was the day when if they won they could get promoted back up to the Premiership.
“It was a full house so hopefully it will be like that on Wednesday.
“Obviously you’re going from Dumbarton where you get 1000 people – if that – to 50,000, so it’s kind of like ‘Wow’. It was the first time I had played in front of that kind of crowd but it was such a good experience.
“Although we got beat, we did pretty well that night and it was a really good experience.”
St Mirren will have several players playing at Ibrox for the first time and Waters’ advice is simple. “Probably just don’t get too emotional with the crowd and stick to the game plan,” he said. “Try to block them out and if you get the ball you need to make the most of it.”
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