KRIS BOYD last night sounded a warning to Rangers' SPFL Championship rivals by insisting he is at the peak of his powers and ready to bag the goals to fire the club to a hat-trick of league titles.

The 30-year-old scored 128 times in 192 appearances during his first spell in Light Blue between 2006 and 2010 and has set his sights on maintaining that frightening record after agreeing a 12-month deal to return to his old stomping ground.

"It's a challenge to go and start scoring at the rate I scored before," he said. "I want to score as many as I did here the last time.

"I expect to score goals. That's the way I have been all my career. In four-and-a-half years here, I scored 120-odd goals. I don't see why I can't hit those heights again.

"It might be four years on from me leaving, but I'm only 30 and I feel I still have three or four years left in me.

"I'm not going to start dropping back 50 yards and taking four or five people on, but I am more aware of the game too.

"There were times in the past when I maybe scored one or two goals in the first 10 minutes and felt my job was done. I was probably just being selfish the first time."

Boyd has already singled out the first game of the season at home to Hearts on August 9 as an opportunity to bare his teeth and let the rest of the league know Rangers mean business against a side widely regarded as their biggest rivals for the crown.

"I think you will see a totally different Rangers team to the one you have seen the last couple of years," he said.

"If we hit the ground running and put a marker down against Hearts, we can push on and win it. We need to put down a marker."

Boyd earned his return to Ibrox thanks to scoring 22 goals for Kilmarnock last term and admits his second spell at Rugby Park saved his career after indifferent spells at Middlesbrough, Turkish club Eskehirspor and Portland Timbers in the States.

"I can't say I knew I was going to come back one day," he conceded.

"I was probably on the road to nowhere at one point, but I managed to get myself back together.

"I was the cause of my own downfall. When I was out of the team, I took the easy option.

"Instead of knuckling down, I just waited for the manager to put me back in rather than showing I deserved to be back in.

"I knew when I came back to Kilmarnock and started scoring again there would be interest from clubs, but I'm delighted to be here now.

"I don't regret leaving. Indeed, I feel I am a far better person for it. It's been a long, hard two or three years, but what is two or three years out of your life in the long run?"