Struggling Rangers 'not panicking yet'

03 December 2011 01:46

Rangers midfielder Lee McCulloch is convinced his side can get back to winning ways after taking only one point from their past two league outings.

The Ibrox outfit suffered their first defeat of the season last weekend as they went down 1-0 away to Kilmarnock, coming on the back of a disappointing draw with St Johnstone.

At one point Ally McCoist?s side had a 13-point lead at the top of the Scottish Premier League, but four wins on the trot for Celtic has seen the gap cut to just four.

However, McCulloch says his side will not panic and have the character to bounce back.

"The last couple of results have been disappointing," said McCulloch. "There is no doubt about that.

"Prior to that, we were enjoying a consistent run of results and it allowed us to open up a nice lead at the top of the table. But you always know it is far too early in the campaign to get carried away and there wasn?t anyone here at Rangers who thought any differently.

"If you have a healthy lead in April, with just a month remaining in the season, then it is a completely different story.

"However, we?re only a few months into the season and there are so many matches still to be played and so much can happen in that space of time.

"But what I would say is we would have taken a four-point lead at the beginning of December were it offered to us at the start of the season.

"So it is now a case of trying to get back to winning ways this weekend and taking things from there.

"Now we?ve got to turn our attention to Dunfermline. It will be a difficult game, but we are at home and we know we need to get three points after the last couple of results and hopefully we can put in a good enough performance to make sure that is the case."

Kyle Lafferty, Carlos Bocanegra and Steven Whittaker should all return from injury against Dunfermline, who are third bottom and have won just three times this season.

On Sunday, rivals Celtic take on Dundee United at Tannadice.

Neil Lennon?s side suffered a disappointing defeat to Atletico Madrid in midweek which has left their Europa League hopes hanging by a thread.

But their run of four wins in a row in the league has seen them close the gap on Rangers.

Emilio Izaguirre, Kelvin Wilson, Thomas Rogne and Cha Du-Ri have all started full training but Sunday?s match may be too soon for them. Scott Brown remains sidelined with an ankle injury.

Elsewhere on Saturday, Kilmarnock will hope to build on their impressive win over Rangers when they host second-bottom Aberdeen at Rugby Park.

Hearts could leapfrog visitors St Johnstone into fourth place if they can beat Steve Lomas? side at Tynecastle.

St Mirren will look to bounce back from their hammering at the hands of Celtic with a match against bottom club Inverness Caledonian Thistle.

Fixtures (1500GMT unless stated)

Saturday

Hearts v St Johnstone, Kilmarnock v Aberdeen, Rangers v Dunfermline, St Mirren v Inverness Caledonian Thistle

Sunday

Dundee United v Celtic (1245)

Source: AFP