RANGERS begin their quest for Scottish Cup success with what should be a penalty kick at League Two Dumbarton on Saturday night.
Philippe Clement's side were in Spain for some warm-weather training on their winter break and lost to Hertha Berlin over there before drawing with FC Copenhagen at Ibrox in midweek.
The Belgian boss lost his unbeaten record in a controversial loss at Celtic, with the repercussions from that only now just dying down. But they recovered to win their last game before the break against in-form Kilmarnock.
They do have a big midweek game at Hibs ahead of them, but you would imagine Clement will still pick a strong team after an 18-day break.
They face a Dumbarton side who sit in fourth place in the fourth tier of Scottish football and are sitting 18 points off the pace set by leaders Stenhousemuir
They have been struggling recently with only one win in their last six league games and they haven't won at home since the middle of November.
The Rock will be frankly horrible on Saturday night – a windswept ground with only one stand and a pitch that has never been good and also slopes at one side.
But it's surely inconceivable for Rangers not to breeze through against a side who last won the Scottish Cup in 1883.
How the bookies view it
Rangers are 1/14 with bet365 which isn't the biggest of surprises.
You can get 28/1 on a shock Dumbarton win with William Hill and the draw is 17/2 with McBookie.com
Recent head to heads
The teams were in the same league when Rangers were on their ‘Journey' with both in the Championship for two seasons. The last meeting at The Rock saw Rangers romp to a 6-0 win.
Rangers have won the last 12 meetings and the Sons' last win was in 1894!
Players to watch
Ryan Wallace has been in decent form for Dumbarton with three goals in his last five games. He is 7/1 to score anytime with bet365.
Rangers will be without Abdallah Sima, who is on African Cup of Nations duty with Senegal. So it may pay to look at Cyriel Dessers, who will surely get the chance to lead the line and is 5/6 to score anytime with bet365.
Anything else catch the eye?
It's very hard to make a case for anything other than a resounding win for Rangers, no matter how bad the conditions may be.
Dumbarton conceded four goals at home to bottom club Clyde recently and then lost at home to East Fife so it's not as if their home is a fortress.
Rangers to win to nil is actually surprisingly backable at 4/6 with BetVictor and that seems just about as big a certainty you will get surely.
You would expect Rangers to try and put this to bed early and Paddy Power's 6/5 on them scoring over 1.5 first half goals looks generous.
The same firm make Rangers 11/4 to score over 4.5 goals and that has to have a chance too.
This Scottish Cup match between Dumbarton and Rangers will be played on Jan 20, 2024 and kick off at 17:30. Check below for our tipsters best Dumbarton vs Rangers prediction. You may also visit our dedicated betting previews section for the most up to date previews.