Steven Gerrard has said his Rangers side will have to hit the ground running against FK Shkupi in their Europa League encounter and said last year's shock defeat to Progres Niederkorn will act as a motivation.

The Europa League first qualifying round match at Ibrox on Thursday evening will be Gerrard's first competitive game as manager and he's hoping to take the first step of a successful season. However, he knows the Macedonian side have their own ambitions and Rangers don't have the luxury of being able to take it easy.

"If these players go in thinking it's easy that's when we'll come unstuck," he said. "What you've got to understand is the opposition are coming into a stadium that is packed to the rafters. This is the biggest night of their careers with all due respect.

"It's going to be a huge cup final mentality for them so we can't have any drop-off.

"Over the last couple of years and certainly at the moment, this team hasn't been good enough to take our foot off the gas, so we need to go full throttle."

Though favourites to win the match and the tie, Rangers were stunned in Luxembourg this time last season. Gerrard said that a reminder of that humiliating result was useful in making sure his side would be ready to perform at Ibrox.

"It's always a test in these rounds," he said. "We only have to go back 12 months to realise any opposition has to be respected. We have to take the test very seriously.

"But it's about us getting our own house in order, being organised and ready to compete against whoever we come up against.

"We're moving forward very quickly and taking giant strides and we're close to where I want the side to be, so I believe we're ready for tomorrow.

"My job is to make sure we're well aware of the pitfalls . This will probably be one of the easiest team-talks I'll ever have to do as a manager because we only have to go back 12 months and show them the newspaper cuttings, show them their faces at the end of the second leg.

"There's your team-talk right there. It smacks you in the face. If you're not ready to put that right then we've got a serious problem there."