FEW homegrown players have captured the imagination of the Ibrox crowd like Charlie Miller…but Lewis Macleod is certainly one of them.

While midfield maestro Miller burst on to the scene to help Rangers to nine-in-a-row, Macleod has played his part in the Light Blues' recovery and been the single silver lining in the dark clouds hanging over the club.

Having scored in the Gers' League Cup wins over Inverness Caley Thistle and St Johnstone, Macleod once again raised his game on Sunday as Rangers completed their Premiership hat-trick by seeing off Kilmarnock.

He has already been linked with moves to England and touted as one of the brightest prospects in our game after a series of superb showings for Rangers in the last two years.

The 20-year-old wasn't even born when Miller kicked off a roller-coaster Ibrox career, but the man who was one of the finest young talents of his generation, is impressed with the player who has caught the eye for Ally McCoist's side.

"I thought Lewis was really, really good on Sunday," Miller told SportTimes. "There is a lot of talk surrounding him, but it doesn't look like it is affecting him.

"It is just speculation, the wee man is still a Rangers player and hopefully he is for a long time.

"You have to play through that and just play through it.

"I would say to him to just keep his head down and keep working hard.

"He is at a great club and he has great facilities to train at. If he wants to improve, he is at the right place to do that and to work at his game."

Miller's rise to prominence is chronicled in his book, 'The Proper Charlie', and recounts his formative years under Walter Smith before he quit Ibrox to join Watford in 1999.

It is McCoist that Macleod has as a Light Blue father figure as the Ibrox boss looks to guide his most promising talent on the road to stardom.

And Miller reckons his former team-mate is the ideal role model for the Murray Park kid who has already forced his way into Gordon Strachan's Scotland squad.

"Coisty has given Lewis his chance and he has certainly taken it," said Miller.

"Lewis has been excellent and long may that continue.

"He is proof that if you are good enough then you are old enough and you will play.

"There is no rush for him to move. I don't know if there have been any offers, but he has handled all the talk well.

"It is good to see Lewis doing so well and long may that continue for him."

Macleod may be the name on everyone's lips at Ibrox these days, but it was Nicky Law who gave the Light Blue legions two reasons to cheer against Killie on Sunday.

Superb strikes in either half clinched an impressive 3-0 win for the Gers as Kris Boyd also found the target. And Miller is expecting more of the same from the former Motherwell man.

He said: "I thought Nicky played really well and he had two excellent finishes.

"No matter what division you are playing in, the Third Division, Championship or Premiership, to get ten goals from the middle of the park at this stage of the season is a great achievement. It is not easy to score goals.

"I don't know how many Nicky is, or was looking for. But he could be looking at 20 now considering how well he has done so far."

Victory over Killie may have been achieved with minimal fuss as Rangers cruised into the last 16 of the Scottish Cup, but the build-up was anything but serene at Ibrox.

Boss McCoist and his players came in for huge criticism in the wake of the defeat to Hearts that left them nine points off the pace in the Championship title race.

McCoist was the target of the fans' fury at Tynecastle, but Ibrox was far from intimidating at the weekend as punters again stayed away in their thousands.

Miller said: "It hurts your pride when you are getting stick from the fans.

"Coisty, being the Rangers man he is, it will hurt more than anyone. But he is not going to walk away, so everyone has to get behind him and support him and the team.

"Ibrox is not the same place when there is only that small number of fans at the game. It doesn't help at all when the supporters aren't there. There were only 14,000 on Sunday, but the players still went and put on a great show.

"Maybe that will get the fans back in, but I know it is what is going on behind the scenes that is making them unhappy most of all.

"I don't know what is happening in the background, but it is a shame the fans feel they can't go and support their team at Ibrox."

The fans who did turn out on Sunday were well rewarded, but even victory over top-flight Killie won't be enough to get the critics off the backs of McCoist or his squad.

After a testing two weeks, there were plenty of positives for the Ibrox boss to take, however, as Rangers continue to fight on four fronts.

Miller said: "I thought Rangers played really well on Sunday, the whole team played well and it was a real team performance. They certainly answered a few critics. If they play like that every week they will win the league and go far in the cups.

"Alloa is next in the Petrofac Cup tomorrow and, if the players put in another performance like that, then there won't be any problems.

"It is about getting that consistency for them now."

lCharlie Miller: The Proper Charlie' by Charlie Miller and Scott McDermott (Black & White Publishing ISBN: 9781845028275, £9.99) is available to buy online and in bookstores now.