Mark Warburton: Rangers spurred on by cup criticism

Former Bradford City man Halliday admitted the Gers players felt they had a point to prove after being stung by the criticism that followed their first defeat of the season against St Johnstone in the League Cup. James Tavernier also chipped in with a goal as Rangers recovered from their League Cup exit to St Johnstone.

His Championship leaders are now nine points clear of nearest challengers Falkirk, who visit Ibrox next Saturday, and Warburton revealed the biggest motivation for his players was hitting back at criticism from unnamed pundits and media following the first defeat of his reign.

Mark Warburton has implemented an attacking style since he took charge of the Glasgow giants and they have been convincing winners in several of their games. Everyone loses a game of football and we will learn from it. But I thought we were excellent especially in the opening 25 minutes. We set the tempo, moved the ball well, got a couple of goals and we were in good shape. He had too many 10 minutes here and there. “Everyone says he’s not a prolific goalscorer but he is doing all right so far”. He said: “Martyn will get better and better, he just needed to play football”.

Rangers started in purposeful fashion and referee Willie Collum had no hesitation in pointing to the spot when Ross Forbes tripped Nathan Oduwa near the byline before Waghorn sent Derek Garston the wrong way. If he’s not on the park I take them but he is playing 90 minutes most weeks so I probably won’t get a shot.

“We’d spoken about not diving in but we did and gave them their first goal from the penalty”.

“Rangers were terrific”, Duffy said. They had six penalties already this season so we told them: “Don’t dive in in the box”. They had a bit of criticism after the midweek game and you could see that fired them up.

“We were a little bit sloppy at times in terms of possession and geography but overall it was a very pleasing result”. “My players worked hard and were as organised as we could be but we came up against a side whose movement and imagination was outstanding”.

BOOKMAKERS Ladbrokes have priced up Morton boss Jim Duffy in their market for the next Motherwell manager.