STRIKER Kenny Miller admitted Rangers “weren’t at the races” as they fell timidly to a 2-0 defeat to Hearts at Tynecastle.

It was the Light Blues’ third away defeat of the campaign and leaves them in third place in the Premiership table. And veteran Miller felt he and his team-mates had fallen far short of the standards expected.

He said: “What didn’t happen for us tonight? Everything that we’re about. We never got started from the first whistle in the way we wanted. We can’t expect to get it all our own way all the time but we never found a way to play our game.

"We were harried and pressed and there was high energy from Hearts. So we need to find a way to counteract that but we couldn’t get to grips with it at any point throughout the game bar the last 10 minutes when we were 2-0 down.

Read more: Warburton laments "goal" that wasn't as Rangers slump to Hearts defeat

“It was the first time since the manager came in that I felt we had to resort to playing long balls straight away. The manager talks about finding solutions but we never found a way to play from the back. We couldn’t get into the flow of the game and it became a battle. I accept that happens when you go to Tynecastle but we usually can take that out of the equation. But tonight we couldn’t manage that. In terms of being up for a battle we weren’t really at the races.”

Rangers were unhappy at the decision to rule out a second-half Joe Dodoo “goal” for offside against Harry Forrester but Miller felt they could have no complaints about the result.

He added: “We’ve lost three games away from home to three good teams this season. So we’ve had to adjust to the step-up to this league and you could say that we’re still adjusting. But we are getting used to it. Hearts are a decent team at home and we weren’t good enough. Simple as that. We never really created much. The offside decision is maybe a big turning point as we never played at all. We weren’t great. But if you get that then maybe it turns for you. But overall tonight we weren’t good enough and can have no complaints.”

Read more: Warburton laments "goal" that wasn't as Rangers slump to Hearts defeat

Next for Rangers is a potentially massive game at home to Aberdeen on Saturday. Miller knows he and his team-mates will need to put in a much improved performance. He added: “Saturday is now huge for us and there has to be a response. We keep talking about trying to get three wins in a row and so it’s back to the drawing board. But it’s a great game, Aberdeen at home, a chance to get back right on it against one of your main rivals for second spot. It’s a huge chance to get back on the horse but we’ll have to play a lot better than we did tonight.”

Manager Mark Warburton also hoped for a much-improved performance against the Dons at Ibrox. He said: “We have got to have a good response. There is no feeling sorry for ourselves. We weren’t good enough. There is no point going in there and saying we were okay here and there. No, we weren’t good enough. Honesty is the best policy.”