LEE HODSON reckons Rangers proved they have the fighting spirit to succeed in the three-way battle for second spot in the Premiership with victory over Aberdeen on Saturday.

Mark Warburton’s side moved back above Hearts in the top flight table as goals from Kenny Miller and Hodson secured a 2-1 win against the Dons at Ibrox.

The Gers came under fire for a poor performance at Tynecastle in midweek but were much-improved as they got back to winning ways on home soil.

And Hodson was pleased Warburton’s side showed a different side to their game to earn a deserved three points against their main rivals for the best of the rest berth this term.

He said: “Obviously everyone can have an off night and I think that happened on Wednesday. But we came out on Saturday and showed what we can do.

“I think we sent a strong message out to people that we can battle, we can fight, we can do the gritty and dirty stuff to win games. That was the main thing on Saturday – to go out, perform and get the three points.

“The fans are always there for us no matter what. The fans have high expectations, just like us as players. That is no problem.

“The support got right behind us on Saturday, they were our twelfth man and they were fantastic throughout the game and right until the end.

“The main thing for us as players was to get the three points and send them home happy for the weekend. Hopefully we can take this into next week and another big game here.”

Rangers will now round off the three game run against their nearest top flight foes when Hearts make the trip to Ibrox this weekend.

And Hodson is confident the outcome will be different this time around as the Light Blues look to make amends for a sloppy showing in the Capital.

He said: “We will sit down and analyse it and look at what we need to do for next week’s game.

“We know we need to do better than Wednesday night and we need to do what we do best and that is move the ball.

“They will come here and we know what they will do. But the main thing for us is that it is all about Rangers.

“It was tough on Wednesday night but the big thing for the players was to get that positive reaction.

“We got that reaction, got the win on the board and it was a massive three points for us.

“We will work hard for the rest of the week, we will look forward to the chance of playing in front of 50,000 here again and hopefully we can get another result and kick-on.”