Hamilton look back 22 years to a cup win over Rangers. Can they do it again today?

Rangers Steven Naismith was just a baby when Hamilton knocked his current club out of the Scottish Cup more than 22 years ago. He is keen for history not to repeat itself today as Ibrox waits for the arrival of Accies in the Homecoming Scottish Cup quarter final. The current Accies players travel to Glasgow hoping to write their own names into the history books with a win to rival that success back in 1987. However Naismith is adamant there is no chance of history repeating itself, despite the home side still reeling from a midweek defeat to SPL strugglers Inverness. He said: "I was still in nappies at the time so I don't remember too much about it. It's been mentioned a little bit and I read about it in the Rangers News this week. We don't want that happening to us and, after the result on Wednesday, we definitely won't be complacent."

For Ally McCoist, the memory of that 1987 third round tie, when Adrian Sprott grabbed the winner, is still all too clear in the memory. The Rangers assistant manager said: "It's still a grey day, it really is. I can look back and wince with pain. When you play at a club like Rangers, you remember the defeats more than the victories. I had a lot more victories but the defeats hurt. I can remember Hamilton knocking us out the cup by scoring a well-documented goal. We battered them from pillar to post that day but couldn't score. It was a sore one. I look back and it is a sore memory but it doesn't do you any harm. It's how you react and hopefully that was a one-off and Hamilton won't be doing that to us on Sunday."

Hamilton manager Billy Reid is banking on the return of defender Mark McLaughlin and midfielder James McArthur. Both players missed the midweek 1-0 home loss to Hibs with head and ligament injuries respectively but are back in contention. Reid believes the return of McLaughlin and McArthur is key to his sides chances of pulling off an away win. Accies have not done too well against Rangers this season with four loses in the record books, including a Co-operative Insurance Cup quarter-final at Ibrox in October. However, things have improved as there were little between the teams in their most recent meeting which ended in a 1-0 defeat at New Douglas Park a week ago. Reid believes the inclusion of McLaughlin and McArthur is crucial if the Lanarkshire side are to go one step further and recreate the famous Scottish Cup win over the Govan side of 22 years ago.

He said: "We were disappointed with the result against Hibs but we made four changes to our starting XI, and left out boys who play week-in, week-out. We were forced to do that and bring two young players in but I still thought we did enough to take a point against Hibs. Trent McClenahan and Martin Canning have no chance of playing at Ibrox but we are hoping that Mark McLaughlin and James McArthur will make it. It would be a huge blow to go to Ibrox without them. They have been two key players - and I mean key players - for us this season. We have two leaders of the pack, McLaughlin and Alex Neil and it's incredible the amount of games we lose when McLaughlin isn't playing. And James McArthur is one of the best midfielders in the country, in my opinion. When you play against the Old Firm you have to have seven or eight players playing at the top of their game. We've lost four times to Rangers this season but if we play to our potential then there is no doubt we can cause them problems. There has always been a belief in what we are doing but I think we gave them a little bit too much respect when we played them last week."

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