Alloa ace Stephen Simmons insists they CAN hold their own against Rangers when the Glasgow giants come calling to the newly-named Indodrill Stadium on Saturday.

But only if they cut out the silly mistakes that saw them put in their worst display of the season so far in the 4-0 loss to Livingston last weekend.

The Wasps ace also believes they have shown what they are made of with the 2-1 win over Hibs less than three weeks ago.

Simmons told Advertiser Sport, “We made a few simple mistakes and made it easy for them so if you do that in this league then you will be punished. We never get down beat after a defeat so we don’t need a big game to lift us again but it certainly doesn’t do any harm that our next game is against Rangers.

“We will just look to work hard in training and then put that game behind us with a good performance on Saturday. It doesn’t matter who we play against, we are always confident we can win the game, we showed that against Hibs, so this game is the very same. All the pressure is on Rangers because they are a good side and favourites to win the league so we know it is going to be difficult. We just need to go out, play our own game, put on a good performance and work hard. I watched them last friday against Raith, and they punished them for every mistake they made but I think from our point of view it is important to cut out the mistakes and not make it easy for them. If we do that and keep ourselves in the game for as long as possible then you never know what can happen.” The former Hearts midfielder reckons the match against the SPFL Championship title favourites will be an occasion for the whole club to savour and doesn’t think their young squad will be fazed by the big names in the opposition ranks.

Simmons said, “It is great for the club to be involved in a game like this one because it has been a while since their has been as big a buzz about the place. The last few years have been great and now a full house with the renaming deal for the ground, the club has never had it as good as this and so lets hope the fans enjoy it and we can put on a good performance for them. There will be nerves in the dressing room before hand I’m sure for some of the younger players but they will be fine once it gets underway and a few tackles go in.” Simmons revealed that their weekend collapse in the 4-0 defeat at Almondvale was doubly difficult to accept given it was against a side they want to compete with in terms of league position this season.

He added, “I think the Livingston result was so disappointing because we had done so well in our previous couple of games. We had two good wins in the league and were hoping to keep up the winning run and then we go and let ourselves down like that so it is hard to take. We don’t turn into a bad team overnight with one result but it still doesn’t take away from the fact we were well beaten 4-0 and it just wasn’t good enough. We know that and so we just have to move on and look ahead to the Rangers game. We see ourselves as very similar to Livingston and so these are the games we want to be taking points from and that’s what makes it so tough to take.”