Raith Rovers: Boss Ian Murray boosted as influential skipper Scott Brown makes quicker than expected return to training after sustaining ankle injury

Midfield ace Brown, 28, and 31-year-old on loan Livingston forward Esmael Goncalves (groin tweak) both missed last Saturday’s 3-0 Championship defeat at Partick Thistle but there are positive vibes from Murray that both could take the field in Govan.

"Scott Brown has trained a little bit this morning, which we really, really didn’t expect this time last week at all,” the Raith boss told the Fife Free Press on Wednesday.

"It’s a huge bonus if we can just check his reaction over the next 24, 48 hours.

"Esma's the same. He didn’t train today because he’s got a slight bug but he did a bit of work yesterday with the physios.

"I’m very, very hopeful that the pair of them will be ready but it’s 24 or 48 hours too early to know yet.

"Kieran Ngwenya leaves for international duty tomorrow (with Malawi at a training camp in Saudi Arabia), Scott McGill and William Akio are cup tied and Jamie Gullan and Ross Matthews are injured.

"But the good news is that Lewis Vaughan came back at the weekend, Scott Brown and Esma are progressing quicker and Ethan Ross is back in full training.

"We’re really delighted to get all the boys kind of on the pitch at least.”

Rovers, who beat Premiership Motherwell 3-1 at home in the previous round, are rated as high as 25/1 by some bookmakers to win in 90 minutes against Michael Beale’s Champions League outfit.

But, coincidentally, non league minnows Darvel were also 25/1 when they stunned Aberdeen 1-0 at home in the fourth round of this year's Scottish Cup.

“Darvel showed everybody what can happen when you get that little bit of rub of the green, you get a goal first,” Murray added. "We also showed that against Motherwell.

"We’re heavy underdogs and rightly so. That’s pretty obvious. It’s not one of those ones where you’re trying to turn pressure on the other team because there’s pressure for the Rangers players every single week regardless of who they’re playing.

"We will go there, try and get the ball down and try and get close to the opponents.

"We know the task in hand’s very, very difficult. But football’s a very strange game at times, full of surprises, full of opportunities.

"And I think to be playing in the quarter-finals of the Scottish Cup at Ibrox, it’s a great occasion for us.”

Murray said that Rovers go into the last eight clash in “a pretty good frame of mind” despite their recent unbeaten run ending at 14 games with the Partick loss.

"We go there and we enjoy it by at least giving a good account of ourselves,” he said. "It’s a free hit to an extent because we want to play well. If we play well then I think we can’t have too many complaints.

"We certainly don’t want to go there and be overawed."