JAMES TAVERNIER insists Rangers aren’t daunted by the gap at the top of the Premiership as they attempt to reduce their arrears to Old Firm rivals Celtic.

The Light Blues fell 25 points adrift of Brendan Rodgers’ side as they crashed to a 4-1 defeat to Hearts on Wednesday night.

Boss Mark Warburton has set his sights on securing second spot this term as he looks to earn a shot at the Europa League qualifiers.

And Tavernier hopes Rangers can start to make some inroads into the advantage that Celtic have as they ease towards a sixth successive title.

He said: “It is a big gap and obviously we’re all disappointed with some of the results that we know we could have won and we know we could have prevented.

“Obviously they’ve taken their chances and have only dropped two-points all season.

“We’ve just got to set things right [this afternoon], get three points and get three points from now on and try to win as many games as we can.

“Any team in any league who have only dropped two points halfway through the season - that’s been a good run. If Chelsea had done that in the Premier League, people would say ‘Hats off to them, they’ve done a good job’.

“No, most definitely our aim is to try and close that gap. The only way we can do that is by winning games and by them dropping points. All we can do is win our games.”

It has been a frustrating campaign for Rangers as they have struggled to put together a consistent run to help them pull away from the Dons.

The Scottish Cup win over the Hoops last term raised expectation levels at Ibrox ahead of the new campaign and Tavernier knows the Gers have to look to bridge the Old Firm gap as quickly as possible.

He said: “We had a good game that day (at Hampden). So probably, [we thought it would be easier] yeah.

“But they have a new manager and some new players coming in. You’ve seen it around the world, when new managers come in they can boost teams.

“He has certainly done that and they are a totally different side from when we played them last year.

“When we went into that game at Celtic Park at the start of this season, we thought it would have been a little bit different.

“But the new manager has obviously helped them massively and we just have to work harder to try and close that gap.

“As Rangers players, like Rangers supporters, we are always expected to beat Celtic. We always want to beat them, we never want to lose. That’s the Old Firm, you want to have the bragging rights.

“We’ve got a good squad but we’ve been hit with a few injuries. Now we have brought Emerson (Hyndman) and Jon (Toral) in, who are great additions to the squad.”

After returning to action following the winter break with back-to-back wins over Motherwell in the Scottish Cup and Premiership, Rangers turned in their worst performance of the campaign at Tynecastle in midweek.

A series of defensive errors cost the Light Blues dear as the Jambos eased to a deserved victory and left Warburton under pressure ahead of the visit of Ross County this afternoon.

And Tavernier hopes Rangers will learn from their mistakes as they attempt to get back on track at Ibrox.

He said: “We don’t mean to make mistakes and that’s the whole learning curve of football. You’re always trying to improve and being a better player and we always say we win together and lose together.

“It’s disappointing to send the fans home unhappy and we were all devastated when we got into the dressing room after the game.

“We’ve looked back at the game and found ways to improve ourselves.

“Most of the time it’s not always the same mistake over and over again, so we just have to learn together and be better for it.”