LEE HODSON is confident Rangers can live up to the expectations from the Ibrox crowd as they bid to climb the Premiership standings in the coming weeks.

The Light Blues are fifth in the table after a lacklustre start to the campaign that has seen pressure build on boss Mark Warburton.

A chorus of boos rung around Ibrox on Wednesday night as the Gers were held to a 1-1 draw by St Johnstone just days after suffering a second Old Firm defeat of the season.

Rangers are already nine points off the pace being set by Celtic at the top of the table and have won just four of their ten Premiership outings.

But defender Hodson insists Warburton’s side will continue to strive for improvement as they attempt to silence their critics this term.

He said: “We know as a bunch of players that we can always do a little bit better.

“There is never a perfect performance, You can always pick out little things.

“But there has been a lot of positives from league games in recent weeks. We’d all like to do better but we know what we need to do.

“We have an important game on Saturday and the most important thing is to get the three points that we need going into the Ross County game the following week.

“The fans are passionate. It’s Rangers and the fans expect you to win. We as players, we want to win as well. So it makes no difference.

“It is expected that if we are not performing well, that’s going to happen. They have high expectations, as we do.

“It’s hard to explain. You obviously hear the crowd when you are on the pitch but you just have to concentrate on your performance.

“We just try and carry on doing what we want to do on the pitch. We have our philosophy and we will keep doing that.”

Hodson was a surprise starter against the Saints in midweek as he kept his place in the side in the aftermath of the Betfred Cup defeat to Celtic at Hampden.

The Northern Irishman has found it tough to dislodge James Tavernier and Lee Wallace from their berths in the Light Blues back four.

But he is determined to rise to the challenge at Ibrox and play his part in helping the Gers climb the Premiership standings.

Hodson said: “It wasn’t going to be easy as they are top class full-backs. They did well last year and have carried on.

“It was always going to be tough for me to come here and get my spot but I was willing to come here and work hard. I knew I would improve being a player here with the quality in the squad and the intensity.

“I knew that when I got my chance I had to take it.

“It was always going to be hard for to get in right away but I knew that and was willing to come.

“Yeah, possibly [me and Tav could play together]. Tav is a good full-back who can get forward and defend and has got a great delivery which he has shown already this season.

“He can show his quality at full-back but if he’s higher up the pitch it could work.

“I thought we did ok down the right hand side against Celtic and the more we play then you can only get stronger. We’ll have to see if that happens.”