Hughes: We won’t be going gung-ho against Linfield

“Linfield are the top team in the league and they proved that yet again on Saturday when they produced a 5-0 hammering of a good team like Crusaders. That emphasises just how good they really are,” he stressed.

“So, although I would love to say we are going to Windsor Park and going to be gung-ho and have a real go at them, that’s simply not going to happen because it would clearly be asking for trouble.

“Given the way we have been conceding goals, I am not so sure that we can leave ourselves exposed at the back. So we will have to try to put in a place on the pitch a formation which will give us options which enable us to defend properly and punish them when we get chances to hit them on the break.

“We have players who can hurt them, make no mistake about that. So it’s all about getting those guys on the ball in the right areas and affording them the opportunities to show what they can do.

“We will go there and show them the respect they deserve and have earned. We will have a go at winning the game but we’ll do that by trying to play solidly and well, rather than in any kind of cavalier manner.”

Rangers go into this weekend’s game on the back of a 3-2 defeat to fellow strugglers Glenavon which has left them at the foot of the table on goal difference. It was a match Hughes feels his side should have won but Brian McCaul’s hat-trick put paid to their dreams of taking home three valuable points.

“I’m so very disappointed at the concession of terrible goals, something that has been a thorn in our side in the last three or four games, but which really has been a huge problem all season.

“We were left feeling a little robbed at Mourneview Park, but I’m really disappointed more than anything else that we did not wrap the game up when we should have done.”