Rangers manager Mark Warburton says he can’t wait for his next taste of the Old Firm derby, and vows that his side will be better-prepared to take on Celtic by the time the Hogmanay clash arrives.

Warburton was hurt that his side were so easily beaten on the day by their city rivals, but he refused to accept that the gap between the teams is as large as the score-line suggested.

He has now set his sights on putting together a run of victories to close the gap at the top of the table, before hopefully seeing the year out with a bang by getting revenge on the Hoops at Ibrox.

Read more: "Negative" Scottish football makes me "depressed", says Rangers boss Mark WarburtonGlasgow Times: Rangers manager Mark Warburton

“We want to win the next one,” Warburton said. “That’s the obvious statement.

“You want to play in that. Why would you not want to enjoy that as a player?

“But we want to deliver performances in those games. That’s important. The hurt is that we never showed how good we can be. We are a lot better than we showed.

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“Some of the comments I’ve seen, saying it’s a chasm and all the rest of it…it was a 3-1 game.

“They were better than us on the day. Absolutely. I’m not going to sit here and deny it and get shot down again. Whatever you say, you get shot down. The fact of the matter is that other people have said the same as me.

“I understand that Saturday’s result means that you can be the target of ridicule, but I know my thoughts on that one.

“Right now, we have to bite our tongues. We have to eat humble pie. We just got beaten. You can’t sit there and come out all guns blazing. We just got beaten 5-1.

“The fact is we are five games into a 38-game season. Good grief, there are teams in the Championship down south or in the Premier League who should be in the top six and are currently languishing near the bottom. It’s just the nature of the beast. I understand that.”

Read more: "Negative" Scottish football makes me "depressed", says Rangers boss Mark Warburton

Warburton reckons that his Rangers project shouldn’t be judged on the basis of Saturday’s Old Firm humiliation, or on their disappointing start to the season overall.

Instead, he has asked for patience for his team to get it right on the park.

“The significance of the game has never been lost on me,” he said. “It was never understated.

“If we come sixth or seventh at the end of the season, then you’re going to slaughter us and quite rightly so.

“There’s no panic. You read the reports and you think you’re disappearing down the road. We’re building a job. It’s a longer term project. We have a number of areas we have to keep on improving because it’s Rangers.”