Derek McInnes urges his Rangers side to draw strength from capacity Ibrox crowd in Celtic showdown

Derek McInnes wants to see his players harness the power of a capacity Ibrox crowd on Sunday as they look to land an early-season blow on Celtic.The final Premier Sports Cup quarter-final clash of the weekend takes place exclusively in front of Rangers supporters as a consequence of the trouble which marred the meeting between the sides at the same venue in the Scottish Cup earlier this year.Rangers last lifted the League Cup under Philippe Clement three years ago, the first time they’d claimed that trophy in 12 years.And while McInnes believes the make-up of the crowd gives his side a gilt-edged opportunity to take a step towards recapturing it, he feels it will only work in their favour if fans are given a performance to feed off.‘I think we’ve got to bring the crowd with us,’ said the Rangers boss. ‘You’re not going to play Celtic and dominate the game for 90 minutes.‘We’ll have spells, they’ll have spells, it’s just the way it is. I think it’s important that we tap into having that 50,000 behind us and behind the players, support them, have their backs, not be on their backs and really make it as tough for Celtic as possible. Derek McInnes hopes a full house of Rangers fans can inspire his side and Old Firm triumph‘We’ve got our part to play in that and I feel that if we can capitalise on good play and good opportunities, which we didn’t do against St Mirren and Motherwell, if we can get ourselves in front, give the crowd something to get behind, then I think the strength of our club can be shown.‘I think if the 50,000 can be utilised and we can have the strength of performance in the team, it will be difficult to stop.‘We recognise Celtic are a good team who have picked up more trophies than any other club in recent years. We just want to make sure that we give ourselves a chance to be relevant domestically again in terms of winning trophies and Sunday gives us a chance to take a step towards that.’Rangers approach the game in a positive frame of mind thanks to Bojan Miovski’s stoppage-time winner against St Mirren which chalked up a fourth straight league win.Having hardly featured in the opening weeks of the season, the North Macedonian forward looked surplus to requirements. But with injuries hitting Youssef Chermiti and then Lawrence Shankland, Miovski looks set to play a pivotal role alongside Ryan Naderi and Kevin Kelsy in the weeks ahead.‘It was a brilliant ending to the game because we have got to be honest and say it didn’t look like it was coming,’ McInnes reflected.‘St Mirren were the better team for the last part of the second half and we were struggling to get any sort of momentum to create chances in that period.‘He (Miovski) comes up with a big moment for us and a lovely finish that separated the teams. It turns one point into three, which is vitally important for us. McInnes hailed Rangers goal hero Bojan Miovski for his match-winning effort against St Mirren‘Yeah, he’s feeling good about himself, bounced into the club this morning, but he’s always a positive boy anyway.‘He’s been good as gold since we’ve been in and when we did come into the club I thought we were fortunate to have someone that has prowess, has experience, has know-how of Scottish football.‘His goals per minute, is really strong in the Scottish Premier League and for a long period through that transfer window he probably thought he would have to go elsewhere to get regular football.‘But things change in football and hopefully he can go and have a big impact for us between now and the end of the season.’One player who looks like departing the club in the coming days is John Souttar. The defender has been a peripheral figure since McInnes arrived in the summer and, with the Greek window still open, Aris Thessaloniki are preparing an offer.‘I spoke to John this morning,’ said McInnes. ‘There’s a bit of interest in him from one or two clubs, one club maybe a bit further down the line than the other.‘But I think it’s something that could develop and maybe something will happen over the next two or three days.’