IT was a nightmare week but a dream night for Andy Halliday. It was an occasion to savour, a moment that was the proudest of his career as he captained Mark Warburton’s side to victory over Queen of the South on Tuesday night.

The spotlight was shining on Warburton and his players and the pressure had reached a level the manager or his squad had experienced before.

Victory over Queen of the South doesn’t take all the burden off Rangers, but a Halliday-inspired side took a step in the right direction at Ibrox.

Read more: Matt Gilks: Rangers will relish Aberdeen clash after comfortable cup winGlasgow Times:

The midfielder was handed the armband after skipper Lee Wallace was rested for the Betfred Cup quarter-final and lead by example as he turned in another accomplished display following his return to the team against Ross County on Saturday.

Halliday was left out of the starting line-up for the Old Firm defeat to Celtic and was then involved in the training ground bust-up with Joey Barton that lead to the Englishman being suspended by Rangers.

It was to the 24-year-old that Warburton turned on Tuesday as he fulfilled the captain’s duties and the lifelong Rangers supporter was thrilled to receive the honour.

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“It is certainly one of the proudest moments of my career to captain this great football club,” Halliday said.

“There have been many great football players who have captained this legendary club and to be added to that list – albeit one game – it’s a phenomenal achievement for myself, and most importantly it was a 5-0 win for us.

“It’s good to get back in amongst the goals and I thought we were back to our free-flowing best.

“Apart from a 15-minute spell at the start of the second half I thought it was a lot like the Rangers we are used to.

“It’s fair to say it’s something I have dreamed of for a long time and I managed to sample that for 20 minutes against Linfield.

“But being a competitive game and with it being at Ibrox in front of our fans, it was probably the proudest moment of my Rangers career.”

It was to prove a satisfying night all round for Halliday as he marked the occasion with his second goal of the campaign.

His second half strike all-but secured a semi-final spot for Warburton’s side before Martyn Waghorn hit a hat-trick to complete a comfortable 5-0 win.

“We echoed to him before the game that he has nothing to prove,” Halliday said.

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“It’s good to see him back out there first and foremost and he’s got to realise the goals will come.

“Obviously being Waggy, he gets down on himself if he misses a couple of chances so we’ve just drilled it into him that he needs to be composed and calm within himself because we all know Waggy’s quality and he’s going to get goals. It was good to see him take another ball home [on Tuesday].”

With their place at Hampden secured, Rangers will now turn their attentions back to the Premiership and a meeting with Aberdeen on Sunday.

Having taken just nine points from their opening six games, Warburton’s side are in need of a win at Pittodrie to kick-start their top flight title bid.

The Gers boss could be without Josh Windass for the trip north, however, after he was forced to withdraw from the side on Tuesday night after suffering a hamstring injury during the warm-up.

“It was very disappointing first and foremost because I think Josh has been a very exciting player for us,” Halliday said.

“He’s still a young boy and the way he handled his debut against Celtic, albeit it was a very disappointing performance from ourselves, I thought he was excellent in that game and he carried that on to last week. So it is very disappointing to lose him and hopefully it’s not for too long.

“But you can see Niko (Kranjcar) with his quality, he’s came in and he’s played a big part in the 90 minutes. I thought he was different class so we’ve certainly got a very good squad that fill in these positions.”

After following up their Old Firm defeat with a goalless draw against Ross County on Saturday, it was a welcome return to winning ways for Warburton’s side on Tuesday night.

Read more: Matt Gilks: Rangers will relish Aberdeen clash after comfortable cup win

Victory over the Dons would ease more of the pressure on the Englishman’s shoulders and Halliday knows the Gers must continue to strive for improvement as they look to meet the demands from the stands.

“That is what it is all about and the way of this football club,” he told rangers.co.uk. "There is going to pressure if you don’t pick up results.

“That is the nature of the beast and to be honest we wouldn’t have it any other way because two points dropped at home in the league is never good enough.

“We have got a group of winners in there. We take the burden on ourselves and we went out and got a good victory.

“I can’t wait [for the Aberdeen game]. It is a huge fixture and a fixture that we have not had for quite a long time now so the boys have got a good one to look forward to on Sunday.”