FRASER Aird admits the League Cup win over Inverness Caledonian Thistle has boosted the confidence of the Rangers side.

A late Lewis Macleod goal ensured the Gers overcame Caley Thistle in the cup competition at Ibrox on Tuesday night.

It was only the second time in five attempts that Ally McCoist's side had beaten top flight opponents since dropping down to the bottom division.

And winger Aird stressed that overcoming the SPFL Premiership high-flyers has increased the self-belief within the Gers side as they chase the Championship title.

Aird said: "The win over Caley shows we've got a good enough squad to go up to the Premiership and compete. They were top of the league before last weekend having not conceded a goal.

"It just shows we're not too far off it, although we still have a long way to go.

"There's a few new boys in the team and we had to get them gelled together. It's hard at the start of a new season for any team when you've brought in new faces.

"But we've started to show that we can play good football and hopefully we can keep it going.

"The boys are looking forward to the Alloa game. We're on a high after two brilliant results against Raith away and then Inverness on Tuesday. We're ready to go again."

Aird believes that having a fortnight without a competitive match helped the players to recharge their batteries.

He said: "I think the international break did us the world of good because we had a long pre-season with a lot of travelling in America.

"The boys got a few days off and we had a solid week of training and anyone with aches and pains came back into the team so the break was good, particularly for myself."