Alloa Athletic star Kyle McAusland says friendships will be put to one side when they do battle against his former side Rangers in a live tv clash this Sunday at the Indodrill Stadium.

The former Murray Park trainee, who left the Glasgow giants in 2015 to join up at Dunfermline, has been impressed with Mark Warburton’s new-look side after they dispatched both of their SPFL Championship title rivals with ease in their first two outings. But he still believes the Wasps can cause an upset as long as they perform to the levels they are capable of.

McAusland told Advertiser sport: “This Sunday will be a great game to be involved in and it definitely adds an extra buzz to be playing in front of the live tv cameras. Obviously, the game is against my former team where I learned my craft and I am looking forward to catching up with some familiar faces, but as soon as the whistle blows for the start of the game then that will all have to wait and my focus will be on doing my best to win the game for Alloa.

“I believe that as long as we can defend better than last week and take our chances when they come then we will have a good chance of springing an upset. The improvement in Rangers is plain for everyone to see this season. They look a lot stronger and really send out a message with their wins over Hibs and St Mirren that maybe their fortunes are beginning to change.

“It will be an interesting game and a tough one for us. Rangers will go into the game as big favourites and they have been impressive in their games so far, but we have some experienced players such as Michael Chopra, Burton O’Brien and Andy McNeil so we are hopeful of a big performance and we are all still confident of a good season regardless of what happens on Sunday.

“I think you see the players starting to gel now. It is always difficult to get the balance right when you have such a high turnover of players like we have, but we have been playing well, progressing with each game and there is definitely much more to come from this team.” The 23-year-old put in a man-of-the-match performance in the 3-1 loss at Queen of the South last weekend, and was a loss to explain how they found themselves trailing 3-0 at the interval.

It was a game that saw him deployed in midfield and then central defence, but McAusland insists he is happy to play anywhere to do his bit for the team.

He said: “It was good to get back into the nitty gritty of the league and it was great to get a run out from the start again. Obviously, in the first half I was trying to score goals then in the second half I was trying to prevent them, but I am happy to play wherever the manager needs me. I felt I did well in the match so hopefully that can stand me in good stead for the rest of the season.

“I have played a number of positions coming up through the ranks at Rangers and so I feel comfortable playing at right-back, centre half or centre midfield and I am confident enough in my ability that I can do a job in any of those positions. I am happy to do anything I can to help out the team.

“I thought we played some nice football at times against Queen of the South and were the better team for most of it so we were really baffled to be 3-0 down at the interval. They were simply clinical. They had three chances off three mistakes from ourselves.

At this level especially in football you get punished for your mistakes and if you don’t take your own chances then it is always going to be tough.

“The way we defended, especially in that first half against Queens, simply wasn’t good enough, and that is why we lost, but there is no point on dwelling on it now and we just have to look to go and rectify it on Sunday.

“We were a lot more solid at the back in the second half where we limited them to very little and got our goal back through Flannigan, so we have to look to the positives and move on to Rangers.” The versatile youngster was delighted to see the club tie up a deal to bring Michael Chopra back to the club for a second spell and he believes the former Newcastle striker will be a key player for them this term.

McAusland added: “It has been great to see Chopra join up again with the club. He is a great player to have around the place with his unbelievable experience in the game. I am sure that once he gets up to speed in terms of match sharpness then he will start banging in the goals for us.”