Back to basics

Rangers are in Inverness on the rebound after losing last weekend's Old Firm game, and no-one around the club is in any doubt that they could do with embarking on a long unbeaten, and winning, run. Celtic did precisely that after losing the first derby of the season in August. Their 12 consecutive victories amounted to assembling the vertebrae of a possible championship triumph. Now Rangers must do something similar.

Walter Smith's men won five out of their next six league games after beating Celtic at Parkhead, but, unfathomably, stumbled and lost away to St Mirren. At the same time Celtic recovered instantly from losing the first derby and ploughed through September, October and November with a 100% record in league matches. Rangers have already dropped points to more than half of their opponents in the SPL, namely Aberdeen, St Mirren, Dundee United (twice), Motherwell, Hearts and Celtic.

"The only way to get the points deficit back is by winning games and getting some sort of consistency," said Miller. "Over the last seven or eight games it's been like win, draw, win, loss, win, draw for us. It's just not been good enough. After we won the Old Firm game at Parkhead Celtic went on a 12-game winning run so there's no reason why we can't do that, starting on Sunday. We're going to have to put some kind of winning sequence together. If that means going to six away grounds and winning the lot then we're going to have to do it.

"Celtic are a really good team. You saw that last Saturday in the way they played. But I don't think they are any better than us. I think we are a very good team. There have been times when we've just not got the results we deserve but there's no point in crying over that. I still feel we're a very good team and we're going to win games. Come May I hope and still believe we'll be top of the pile. I think we're good enough to win the league. We've got a big gap to claw back but we are more than capable of doing it. I know within the squad we've got the players who are capable of going on that run that's going to put Celtic under pressure.

"Celtic have obviously got a bit of grit about them. They can go to away grounds and grind out a 1-0 or a 2-1 and that's something we've not been doing. As I said, they went on a 12 game winning run and that's something we've not been able to do yet. We've been lucky if we've put three together. We've got to show determination and a consistency that shows we can go on that kind of run. We've got to win every game. With the position we now find ourselves in we've got to get maximum points. That's got to be our goal."

The next Old Firm match is six weeks away but the distraction of upcoming ties in both domestic cup tournaments means Rangers will play only four more SPL matches before turning up for duty at Parkhead. After Inverness today they are at home to Falkirk and Dundee United either side of a trip to Aberdeen.

"We've got to get the full 12 points before the next Old Firm game," Miller went on. "We can't let the gap go to nine or 10. If that happens it does put us under huge pressure to win those games.

"There's no doubt both teams Rangers and Celtic are going to drop points between now and the end of the season. But we've got to make sure that at this time we get maximum points every time we go out, and go into the next Old Firm game with the lead at no more than seven points, at worst."

Smith echoed his player by admitting his side "put ourselves under pressure" in allowing Celtic's lead to stretch to seven points last weekend. The manager reflected on the first half of the campaign by reaching a conclusion that would worry any Rangers supporter: their team has a tendency to concede too many easy goals and not create or convert enough chances. So, apart from that everything else is fine then? But Smith was confident that his side have the capacity to improve, find consistency over the remaining five months of the season and take Celtic all the way.

"The reasons we haven't won games have been down to our own inadequacies rather than any of the teams being better," he said. "I don't think we've had better territorial advantage than in the game against Hearts at Tynecastle Rangers lost 2-1 there in November yet we never looked like scoring a goal that day. We lost two goals that were poor and that's something that has been with us for the majority of the season. Even when not being under pressure we've managed to give up a goal. At times our defending has been excellent and then there has been a bit of slackness. And in some games we haven't created enough chances, so it's about getting a better balance.

"In the second half of the season we need to find an extra edge to our play which will eradicate the problems we've had. If we can do that we've shown that we can get on a run of wins, which is what we need to do if we want to exert a bit of pressure on Celtic."

When Rangers last faced Caledonian Thistle they rattled five goals past them before half-time. That there were no further goals was merciful towards the Highlanders at Ibrox that day, but they have had plenty of suffering since. Five straight league defeats has anchored them at the wrong end of the league table and manager Craig Brewster is under more pressure than any of his SPL peers.

In October, Celtic went to Inverness and won 2-1: a forgettable, unremarkable result in almost every sense, but also part of the spine of a potential league title success. Today Rangers have to find their own backbone.