BARRIE MCKAY insists Rangers are capable of turning the tables on Old Firm rivals Celtic and clinching derby bragging rights this season.

Mark Warburton’s side suffered their third defeat of the campaign to the Hoops on Saturday as goals from Moussa Dembele and Scott Sinclair cancelled out Kenny Miller’s early opener.

Celtic are now 19 points clear at the top of the Premiership standings as they followed up their wins at Parkhead and Hampden with another derby triumph at Ibrox.

But McKay insists Rangers can take heart from their performance ahead of the final two league meetings between the sides later this year.

He said: “I think on another day we would have taken these chances and we would have won the game. That would have closed the points gap.

“We just need to keep going and playing the way we are playing.

“I don’t think it (the gap) is as big as people make out. I think if we took our chances we could have given them a doing [on Saturday], sort of thing.

“They took their chances in the last game and obviously scored five.

“If we had taken our chances today and kept them at bay, I think we could have done the same to them.

“It is important to win every game. You are at this club to win every game.

“You can’t be happy to lose games or draw games. You go into every game wanting to win three points.

“No, definitely not (we don’t want a whitewash by Celtic). The fans turn in up numbers and go to away games in numbers. They want to see us beat them so it up to us as players to deliver that.

“We have got a great squad and a lot of great talents in the team. I think we proved [on Saturday] that we can match them and if we had taken our chances it could have been a different game.”

After stringing together four successive league wins for the first time this term last month, it was to prove a disappointing end to the year for Rangers.

Warburton’s side are now just two points clear of Aberdeen after slip-ups against St Johnstone and Celtic in recent days.

And McKay knows the Gers have to get back to winning ways if they are to emerge victorious in the race to be best of the rest this term.

He said: “After Wednesday night, you would say we had dropped two points. We were comfortable and should have gone on to win it.

“Aberdeen then went on to win. It’s up to us to just starting winning games again.

“We go into every game wanting to win them all so it is up to us to do that.”