ANDY Halliday today insisted there is more pressure on Rangers than Hibs to win the Championship this season – then backed his Ibrox team mates to cope with the expectation.

Gers boss Mark Warburton has taken exception to the comments made by his Hibs counterpart Alan Stubbs about the money which has been made available to him tor players.

Stubbs, who annoyed Warburton ealrier this season by describing his job as “very easy”, stated his rival’s budget was “at least four times bigger” after a 2-1 win at Easter Road earlier this month.

However, Halliday believes Hibs, who can move to within two points of Rangers at the top of the second tier table tonight if they defeat Livingston at home, have an easier task recording league wins.

He said: “That is the different demand Hibs have got. They’ve not got that same amount of pressure that Rangers have on them to win every single game.

“For teams that are going to play Hibs, it’s not as big an occasion as when teams like Alloa come to Ibrox and play in front of 50,000.

“But Hibs are doing their job and picking up their results so credit to them. We just look forward to every single game.

“At the start of the season, I said that fans had to buy into what we were doing and trying to change in the style of play. That happened very quickly.

“One thing you maybe do worry about is whether the players can deal with the pressure of playing for the Old Firm. Rangers have had World Cup winners and Champions League winners who have come here and maybe not lived up to the expectations.

“But I think the boys who have come in here this season have handled the weight of the jersey very well. Long may that continue."

Halliday added: “There have been a lot of new signings who were maybe not quite used to pressure like this at previous clubs, or who didn’t know the demands at Rangers.

"But we have kept the intensity going and are looking to get another three points on the board this weekend.

“We place high demands on ourselves to win every single game so mentally it can be tough. But you have to expect that at a club like this and I think we have dealt with it really well.

“‘The key is to win every single game. That’s what we expect from ourselves and those are the demands we set."

Halliday stressed nobody at Rangers, who will return to league duty when they travel to take on Livingston away on Saturday, is downhearted after the Hibs defeat.

“All credit to Hibs," he said. "I think they are a very good squad this year, better than they were last year. They obviously got that win at Easter Road.

"But I’ve watched it back and felt we were very good in the second half. It was a game that could have gone either way.

"They are in form, you can’t hide away from that. But I still think we’re in form as well.

"It would have been different if they’d blitzed us off the park at Easter Road and got a comfortable victory.

“But with the chances we had in the second half we could have taken something from the game. It will come to who has the most consistency and we’ve had quite a lot of it with 11 wins out of 12 this season.

“We just have maintain that high standard and see what happens at the end of the season. But we are confident with the ability we have that there will be no problem.”