Rangers have 'more gears to go' as Penrice eyes derby double
· Yahoo Sports
James Penrice has urged resurgent Rangers to follow up their "brilliant" League Cup win over Celtic by beating the Premiership leaders at Parkhead this weekend.
The left-back, on loan from AEK Athens, shone in a midfield role in his Old Firm debut as Rangers swept aside their arch rivals 3-0 at Ibrox last Sunday to reach the semi-finals.
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He acknowledges the second derby of the season will be a "very different game" but insists Rangers head to Celtic Park intent on victory.
Speaking at an event to launch Rangers Charity Foundation's partnership with Down's Syndrome Scotland, the 27-year-old reflected on a "memorable Sunday".
He said: "You've seen a real team performance and I think from the get-go we were brilliant. We need to park Sunday and focus on the league now so it needs to be followed up this Sunday.
"I definitely think we've got more gears to go but there's evidence that it's a lot better. But let's not get too far in front of ourselves, Sunday's massive and ultimately we need to go there and win the game, so we'll be looking to do that."
After a challenging start to the season, including failing to qualify for European competition, Rangers now won five matches in a row - clear evidence things are coming together, according to Penrice.
"I feel like over the last couple of weeks we've been winning games in that sort of way where it's everyone together, but it just made it 100 times better that it was a full stadium," he added.
"You've seen after the game, everyone was in it together and it can only give us confidence going into the next run of games where we need to keep winning.
"Definitely it feels like a real team and that's probably the biggest compliment I can give the boys and for the manager as well. From a difficult position, we've managed to turn it, but it's not fully turned yet, we've still got a lot of work to do."
Penrice says playing in an Old Firm match was always on his "footballing bucket list" and the first instalment surpassed his expectations.
"The noise just when we came on the pitch and during the warm-up was wild," he said.
"But you have to perform and it makes it all the better that we managed to walk away with the win. It was a very memorable Sunday."
With no Rangers fans at Celtic Park in the Premiership match this Sunday, Penrice acknowledges the atmosphere will be somewhat less welcoming.
"From our players' point of view, we don't go there and worry about fans. We think the game will be different," he said.
"They'll probably change stuff, we'll probably change stuff. It'll be a different game but we'll go there with the mindset that we're going to win. That's what you need to do as a Rangers player, you need to go to these places and win."