Rangers boss Mark Warburton has stressed the importance of his side's friendly against United Soccer League side Charleston Battery as it will give him the chance to assess the bonding and fitness levels within the squad.

The match will be the Gers' first during their trip to the United States and will give the manager the chance to assess his squad ahead of the new season.




With the Scottish giants securing the signatures of a number of new players already this summer, it will also be a chance for the manager to see how well they gel within the team and also assess their fitness levels before the start of the gruelling new season in the Premiership.

The match will be played at the American side's 5,100 capacity MUSC Health Stadium and the very fact that they are playing at home during the middle of their domestic season means that the Gers can expect a tough fight, according to the 53-year-old manager.
 


“They are in the middle of their season and they will be in excellent shape. It’s an introductory game for us – we’ll have had a week training in Scotland first then we’ll and then have seven or eight days training under our belt over there", Warburton told his club's official website.  

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“It will be hot and it will be humid, but we will work hard and it is a training game for us and part of that training – there’s no doubt we will take it seriously.

“It’s only a small ground, with five or six thousand people but it is a sell out fixture and what we have to do is prepare well.

“We can’t lose sight that it is part of our training programme and it’ll be our first game. It’s about bonding and getting our fitness levels right and developing the ideas that we are devised on the training park.

“It’s a good game for us, we’ll come back and have the game on the 16th then we will go into our programme that will take us through until the 30th when we play Burnley at Ibrox which will be a good test for us against a very high quality team.

"We’ll then have a week of training before going into the first league fixture.”