Hibernian boss David Gray has sympathy for his Rangers counterpart Russell Martin.
The pair will lock horns at Ibrox on Saturday as their sides do battle in the Premier Sports Cup.
Martin is under increasing pressure after making a poor start to life as Rangers head coach.
His team lost 2-0 to Heart of Midlothian last time out and currently sits 10th in the Scottish Premiership.
Gray was asked if he had sympathy for Martin at his pre-quarter-final press conference: "100 per cent," he replied. "As a manager, we all know it's a really difficult job at any time, at any level.
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"You're judged on results, naturally, and you're responsible for results. It's a bit different in terms of clubs and everything else that comes with it.
"It can be lonely, it can be difficult. It's a really difficult time. So from that point of view, yes, but we all know, we all sign up to that.
"We all know that's very much part of the job and how quickly it can change in both directions."
Gray was under similar pressure to Martin this time last year. He rallied and guided Hibs to a third-place finish.
"I think it's always challenging, even when it's a very different pressure, the pressure is on every single week," he said.
"It's what we sign up to as managers. You might work in business and get your results quarterly or yearly but we get our results every week.
"Once a week at quarter to five, you've either been really good or really poor and that's the nature of the beast and what we sign up to every single week.
"It's also why I enjoy the pressure. I enjoy the thrill that comes with that but it can be challenging, it can be tough on your personal life as well and you never really want it to affect that.
"As long as it stays professional and everybody's trying to do the right things you can always be respectful of that because everyone in football has an opinion, everyone's got a way in which they believe things should be done and I'm sure Russell's got his beliefs in the way he wants it to be moving forward and how he believes he can turn it around."
