RUSSELL MARTIN says he's looking forward to Rangers getting their Premier Sports Cup campaign underway tomorrow evening.
League One outfit Alloa Athletic are the visitors to Ibrox as the Gers look to embark on a memorable journey in a competition they have won a record 28 times.
Speaking to the media ahead of the clash in Govan, Martin said: "It's a game we want to win but also a game we need to balance. We had five games in 14 days.
"Some of the guys played a lot of minutes, so it's a chance for some people to get on the pitch.
"I really enjoyed training yesterday. The Tuesday game enables us to actually do some work on the training pitch which is nice.
"I'm looking forward to seeing them carry it out on the pitch.
"We're not going to make 11 changes. There'll be a chance for some players to play, but there are also ones that need to keep building and improving their performance.
"Tomorrow will look different to Tuesday, so we need to be ready and prepared for everything.
"As a manager and coach, I need to look at my part in the Dundee one and perhaps we didn't get enough messages about that.
"We've done a lot of work on that since and hopefully we'll see that tomorrow. We first need to turn the game into that and work out ways to break them down.
"It's been good learning. We're so early on in the process that everything is going to be about learning.
"We always look at ourselves firstly as a coaching staff and really help the players as much as we can. I think we're really well prepared for tomorrow."
Providing a fitness update ahead of the clash, Martin continued: "Cyriel's injury is not as bad as first feared. Tomorrow will be too early, but we're really hopeful he can be involved on Tuesday.
"Everyone feared the worst the way he went off [in midweek], but it was a small issue and nowhere near as big as it could have been.
"He's a bit sore and stiff still, but everyone has worked really hard to give him the chance to be fit for Tuesday.
"Max [Aarons], Thelo [Aasgaard], Hamza [Igamane] and Mikey Moore will be in the squad.
"It's a nice position to be in and we'll see how many minutes they get on the pitch, but they'll all be back involved."
The return of Hamza Igamane is a welcome one for Martin, with the Moroccan having featured only once under the new Head Coach.
He said of his excitement to work with the 22-year-old: "I'm looking forward to working with him.
"I've not saw him on the training pitch a great amount; he was back late then got injured.
"He's now coming back again. I don't think we can expect too much too soon, but he has a lot of talent.
"It's now fitting that around the other players in the structure and working out how to best utilise that.
"He knows he has to work really hard to keep improving, but he certainly has a lot of raw, natural ability that is really exciting."
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