McInnes returns to Tynecastle for the first time since leaving the Gotgie club for Ibrox in the summer following last season's title near miss

Tuur Rommens admits Rangers are bracing themselves for a hammering from the hostile Hearts faithful on Derek McInnes’ return to Tynecastle.

But the Rangers defender reckons the Ibrox gaffer has given his new squad the tools to cope with the flak they’ll receive in Gorgie on Wednesday night.

McInnes came close to leading the Jambos to a stunning title win last season but walked away from the Edinburgh outfit when presented with the chance to join his boyhood heroes as gaffer.

He arrived at Ibrox to find Lawrence Shankland waiting for him in Glasgow after the former Hearts captain exercised a clause in his contract which meant he could join Gers on a free, while Cammy Devlin has also made the switch along the M8 following the expiry of his Tynecastle deal.

But with both players currently injured, the Gorgie fury will be trained squarely on Del as he heads back to the capital for the first time since his shock exit.

Rommens, though, admits the Light Blues squad are expecting to get caught in the crossfire too.

He said: “Yes, I think Hearts, because of what they did last year, and also now that the gaffer is here and with Shanks and Cammy, so there’s a little bit more pressure on the game. But we'll be ready for it on Wednesday.

"I think the manager gives us a lot of tools to work with and he gives you confidence to do your stuff on the pitch with guidelines. I think you can see it on the pitch now.

“The first couple of games was difficult but afterwards we're getting better and better and everybody understood what was expected from him. I think it can only get better.”

McInnes’ Hearts side forced Gers down to third last year and it looked like his Light Blues line up was set for another season of domestic struggles after taking just one point from their opening two Premiership fixtures of the campaign.

But since then, Gers have rallied - winning eight of their last nine fixtures.

And Rommens believes Wednesday’s trip to Tynecastle is a chance to strike an early blow to Hearts’ hopes of mounting another title bid.

He said: “Yes, exactly. We need to finish above them. There's no doubt about it.”

Rommens and his side had hoped to beat both Hearts and Celtic to the title last year but crumbled after the split. McInnes made it his main priority to stiffen the spine of the squad he inherited from Danny Rohl.

But Rommens admits the time to judge if the new gaffer was successful will only come at the end of the season. Asked if he saw a tougher mentality within the Ibrox dressing room this term, he said: “Yes, I think so but we need to make it true.

“You can say it at the end of the season if there was a mentality change or not. We just need to keep going and not speak about last season or something.

“We just need to keep going and do our best. If a lot of players leave and a lot of players come in, you need to adapt.

“It's not easy for everybody and also for the players who were here, new players, players coming in. It's difficult but after a couple of games we got used to it.”