ANDY HALLIDAY hopes Rangers can show further signs of their improvement this season by clinching a Europa League berth in the coming weeks.

Steven Gerrard’s side saw off Shkupi and Osijek in the first and second rounds of the competition and then progressed through to the play-offs with a 3-1 aggregate win over Maribor on Thursday.

Russian side Ufa now stand between them and a place in the group stages this month.

Halliday filled in at left-back against Maribor after Jon Flanagan was ruled out of the second-leg clash through suspension.

And the 26-year-old is confident there is plenty more to come from the Light Blues as they look to go from strength to strength this term.

“Our expectation at the start of the season wasn’t to get to the final play-off round, so there’s another step to go,” he told RangersTV.

“I think there’s been a lot of improvement and a lot of that credit has to go to the gaffer and his coaching staff.

“This is a team that hasn’t been together for a long period of time. That’s why places like Marbella for the pre-season camp are so important.

“You fit in maybe six weeks worth of training in two weeks and the boys get to know each other better.

“It’s very intense but the amount of sessions you do you get to work on a lot and I think the biggest thing is resilience.

“I think we’re a hard team to beat now, with and without the ball. 

“When we’re dominating the ball we’re hard to beat and when we’re doing the other side of things we’re hard to beat.”