DECLAN JOHN admits Rangers owe boss Graeme Murty a performance and result against Hearts.

The Ibrox boss has come under increasing pressure in the aftermath of the 4-0 Scottish Cup defeat to Celtic.

Murty held talks with his players at the start of the week and defender John knows the Light Blues squad must step up to the plate against the Jambos.

Read more: Rangers Q&A: Graeme Murty on the Old Firm fall-out, dressing room dynamics and his Ibrox future

He said: “It has been fine. Since he (Murty) has come in he has done extremely well and worked really hard. The boys didn’t get to repay him on Sunday.

“Yes [we owe the manager], big time. The main thing is to get the win first and foremost and hopefully we can get a performance as well.”

The Old Firm post-mortem has been dominated by talk of disharmony in the Ibrox camp after Andy Halliday and Daniel Candeias reacted furiously to being substituted and Lee Wallace and Kenny Miller were allegedly involved in a dressing room bust-up.

Read more: Graeme Murty confident he retains the backing of his Rangers squad after Old Firm fall-out​

And John admits the Gers must get back to winning ways as they begin a crucial run of five post-split fixtures.

He said: “Of course we are [united]. Obviously in the week we had been training and really looking forward to going and playing that game. We thought we could get the win but it didn’t happen for us.

“You have got to [put flare-ups behind you]. Obviously there are going to be high emotions after every game, especially in the manner we played. We weren’t good enough and we need to try and get better and hopefully win every game until the end of the season.”