Kenny Miller: Dundee disappointment would have been a disaster for Rangers

Mark Warburton’s side got their Premiership title bid back on track with their first league win of the new campaign at Dens Park.

First half goals from Harry Forrester and Miller were enough to earn the Gers all three points as they bounced back from their opening day draw with Hamilton.

And Miller knows it was a significant result for the Light Blues even at this stage of the top flight fight for the silverware.

Read more: Michael Duffy insists Rangers goal hero Harry Forrester should have been sent off at Dens Park

He said: “If we hadn’t won then a lot of things would have been levelled us in terms of challenging for the league.

“For me, all week I was thinking ‘we need to win, we need to win’. We’ve done it.

“We’re not too happy with the way we went about the job in the second half but we’re delighted with the three points.

“We all appreciated the fact we were disappointed in the result against Hamilton and to start the league without winning in two would have been a disaster for me.

“We got the three points and went down the road happyish in terms of the result but performance-wise we know we can be better.

“It’s a good sign that we won without being at our best. I felt if we had been 3-0 up in the first half then that would have been a fair reflection.

“It was disappointing to concede from a set play and that affected us but we got the three points and that’s all that matters.

“I’ve been here long enough to know the scrutiny you are under every week is like nowhere else in the world.

“We need to recognise that and make sure we learn from the mistakes - of the Hamilton game and also the Dundee game.”

The three points were more than welcome for Warburton but it wasn’t a completely satisfactory day for the Ibrox boss.

The Gers were far from their best in the second half as they had to withstand a handful of Dundee attacks after a Mark O’Hara header gave Paul Hartley’s side hope.

But Miller is confident there is plenty more to come from the new look Rangers line-up as they attempt to get up to speed as quickly as possible in the top flight.

He said: “Look at the amount of players we’ve signed in the last two years. It’s a lot of guys to come in and really hit the ground running.

“Last year we played in the second tier and we’ve made the step up with another nine new faces with one or two more potentially coming in.

“It’s a lot of lads to integrate into a dressing room. A lot of personalities to get used to. But these lads have also got to get used to the way we want to play.

“The message is unwavering from the manager in how he wants us to play our game. You could see that last season, no matter who we played we tried to play the same way.

“I don’t think that was really evident in the second half at Dens Park. But the team will get stronger and better as the season goes on - like it did last season.

“We didn’t play our usual style and still won. We didn’t hit the heights in the second half. We managed to grind out.

“There’s no doubt there was a bit of panic. Everyone knew what was at stake and that it was really important we won.”