MARK WARBURTON hailed his fired-up Rangers stars as they bounced back to winning ways with a 4-0 win over Morton to extend their lead in the Championship standings.

The Light Blues suffered their first defeat of the campaign against St Johnstone in midweek but were deserved victors at Cappielow as they eased to another three points.

Martyn Waghorn hit a hat-trick and James Tavernier his eighth goal of the campaign to extend Rangers’ advantage at the top of the table to nine points.

And the Ibrox boss admits his players were determined to silence the critics and prove the doubters wrong after a stormy reaction to the Saints loss in recent days.

He said: "They were ready for today. They were riled by some of the comments, they trained really well and there was no doubt we were going to go out and start well.

“I know Jim (Duffy) would have prepared his team accordingly, but we were good in that first half hour. The players were ready for the challenge today.

"Yes I would say they were (hurt). It was a little bit disrespectful.

“They've now played 13 games and won 12. Everyone loses a game of football. We'll learn from it.

“But I just thought some of the comments were a little bit over the top considering we had lost one game of football."

Next up for Rangers is the visit of second placed Falkirk on Championship duty this weekend as they look to take another step towards a Premiership return.

The Light Blues are huge favourites to lift the title this term but Warburton won’t get ahead of himself after another impressive performance from his side.

He said: "Our job has to be one game at a time. We are very conscious about the quality of the teams around us like Falkirk and Queen of the South and Hibs.

"Our job has to be one game at a time and to widen the gap."