The recovery will start at Hearts, says Rangers captain McCulloch

McCulloch and his Gers team-mates were booed off the pitch by their own fans at Ibrox on Saturday after failing to beat the part-time Wasps.

It was a terrible result ahead of the massive top-of-the-table showdown with the Jambos at Tynecastle this weekend

It allowed Hearts, who beat Falkirk 2-1 away later that day, to pull six points clear at the top of the second-tier table.

But skipper McCulloch, who thought he had snatched victory against Alloa with a second-half goal, is confident his side can beat the capital club. He was pleased with the way the League One champions responded to their 3-1 defeat at home at Hibs back in September.

And the centre-half reckons Ally McCoist's side can get back to winning against Robbie Neilson's team despite Hearts being unbeaten in the Championship.

McCulloch said: "We know the importance of the match. We were disappointed on Saturday and that has made it more important than it already was.

"We are going to have to be ready. Tynecastle is always a hard place to go. But we are looking forward to it.

"There is going to be a good atmosphere and we will be playing against a good Hearts team. They are very organised.

"It is a chance to put right what we did wrong against Alloa on Saturday and I am sure we will be prepared.

"We certainly responded to the defeat at home against Hibs in September. We managed to go on an eight-game winning run in all competitions. Hopefully we can do it again."

McCulloch was at a loss to explain why Rangers failed for the second time in the campaign to beat Alloa, who equalised with a Liam Buchanan strike.

"I honestly don't know what happened," he said. "We were scoring goals freely and keeping clean sheets at the back going into it.

"We passed the ball all right at times and created some chances. But we didn't take them, simple as that.

"We had a moment of madness after we scored our goal and we couldn't get back in the game."