MARCO NEGRI has backed Martyn Waghorn to surpass his Ibrox scoring streak and fire Rangers to Championship glory this season.

Waghorn took his tally for the campaign to 14 goals with a hat-trick in the 4-0 win over Morton on Sunday as Mark Warburton’s side moved nine points clear at the top of the Championship standings.

Negri famously stormed the scoring charts during his first few months at Ibrox as he netted 33 goals in 26 matches before the turn of the year.

He would eventually finish the campaign with 36 strikes from 39 games before his dramatic fall from grace as he lost his form and suffered a series of injury setbacks.

Waghorn is on course to better the Italian’s remarkable scoring feats and the former Gers forward would be delighted to see the 25-year-old stay on the goal trail this term.

Negri told SportTimes: “I hope he can beat it, if it means that Rangers will win the league as a result.

“It is important that they win the title and get back to the top league this season. If I had any advice for Martyn, I would tell him to remember that he must continue training in the right way and to take nothing for granted.

“You are building your confidence every day in training. You can’t think about the number of goals, you have to go into every game looking to do your best on the pitch.

“You have to focus on being in the right place at the right moment and if you do that then you will continue to score goals.

“During a season, you can have a lot of games where you will score a lot of goals and then you can have some where you don’t score. You can’t score in every game.

“All you can do is focus, train right and continue doing your job. A striker helps the team with goals, of course, but you have to remember it is important to help his team-mates.”

Waghorn has been the main source of goals as Rangers have stormed out of the traps this term and already opened up a sizeable lead in the second tier title race.

And Negri is confident it will be second time lucky for the Light Blues as they continue to catch the eye and pick up points under Warburton.

He said: “I think this is the season for Rangers to get back to the top and they have the right style to get back to the top.

“I have read in the paper and I have been speaking to a lot of fans and the team is playing the right way.

“It is nice for the fans that Rangers are not just winning games, but they are playing good football.”