THE love affair is as strong now as it ever has been and the romance of the cup still burns brightly for Steven Gerrard.

Some of Gerrard's finest outings as a player came on cup final day but his biggest disappointment as a manager so far arrived on that very occasion.

He would win the FA Cup twice - the second of which saw him score a brace against West Ham United and net in the shoot-out - and the League Cup three times with Liverpool.

The merits of cup action have been increasingly debated south of the border in recent times but the Scottish Cup retains its lure as Gerrard prepares his Rangers side to face Hamilton in the fifth round this afternoon.

“It does [still have a prestige] for me,” Gerrard said. “I would love nothing better than to win this competition.

“And as long as I am breathing you will never see me disrespect the FA Cup down in England as well because I have had some incredible memories, from a personal point of view, in the FA Cup and I’d quite like to add to that as a coach up here. So you won’t see me disrespect any competition up here.

“It is not just the ultimate day out. You have got people paying good money to come and fill the stadium against Stranraer and we will take a large chunk of the ground as well.

“We need to respect that and we will have fans around the world watching on and looking at us hoping that we can go on a journey and the main day out is at the end of it. We need to work as hard as we can to reward our supporters for that.”

It was a case of so near yet so far for Rangers as they left Hampden empty-handed in December after their Betfred Cup final defeat to Celtic.

The Premiership title remains Gerrard's most pressing concern this term. A change of competition won't alter his determination to win, though.

Gerrard said: “I think every manager and every club can do whatever they want to do, it is their decision.

“Everyone is under different pressures, different competitions that they try and prioritise. Here at Rangers, in terms of me, we try and prioritise every single game.

“I think we showed that with the selections that we picked through the competition in the League Cup all the way to the final and we will continue to do the same.

“We picked a strong team against Stranraer to get this opportunity so we will continue to pick strong teams and teams that we think are capable of getting the right results to go on a long run.”

Rangers were 3-1 winners when they made the trip to Lanarkshire earlier in the campaign but the points were hard-fought and well earned.

Accies put up a fight before succumbing to Celtic on league duty last weekend.

And Gerrard is under no illusions as to how tricky the fifth round clash will be for his side as they look to build on victory over Hibernian.

He said: “I think they know. Every time we have gone to Hamilton the scoreline has obviously turned out decent, but never in the game was it dead or comfortable or over. We expect a real tough challenge from Hamilton.

"We think they will come out and be brave and bold and take the game to us and make it uncomfortable for us. The players will be well aware once kick-off comes what will be in front of them."