IF Rangers are going to win the Premiership war, they need to be victorious in battles like this.

Steven Gerrard’s side dropped points on the road for the first time this term as they were held to a 1-1 draw at Tynecastle. But the warning signs have been there for a while for the Light Blues.

The wins away to Kilmarnock, St Mirren, St Johnstone, plus at Livingston in the Betfred Cup, have been hard fought. The fear amongst fans was that eventually the Gers couldn’t keep getting away with sluggish starts and that was the case in the Capital as Alfredo Morelos cancelled out a Ryo Meshino opener.

Boss Gerrard put it down to mentality and midfielder Joe Aribo knows Rangers must learn from an afternoon that saw one point earned but two certainly squandered against a Hearts side that were up for the fight from the first whistle.

Aribo said: “That is their game plan and what we need to do as a team is fight, all eleven of us on the pitch have to match the battle and win our one v one battles.

“You need more than that and going on from this we have to prove why we can be up there. We need to keep putting in the performances and, first of all, win the right to play in games. It is definitely about learning and, moving on from this, we have to keep pushing and keep battling. That has to be from the start. You can’t just turn up every 45 minutes. We have to do it from the first minute to the 90th.

“We know that teams are going to try and get at us and we need to try and stay disciplined and composed and keep pushing.”

Rangers went into the international break top of the Premiership table after impressive 5-0 wins over Aberdeen and Hamilton on successive weekends at Ibrox.

But the advantage has been squandered at the first opportunity as Celtic, courtesy of their 6-0 victory against Ross County, regained the lead.

Aribo said: “Yeah, definitely [it is a disappointing result]. We wanted to go out there and get the three points and unfortunately we weren’t able to do that. It was frustrating.

“We started slowly and then from there we were constantly chasing the game. It was hard for us. You could say it was down to mentality. As a team, we just didn’t start quickly enough and we were playing catch up. They made it difficult for us. We have to bounce back from this. We need to take every game as it comes and put in the performances from the off throughout the next games.”

A point was a fair reward for both teams at Tynecastle, but it was welcomed more by Hearts than it was Rangers.

This was a big performance on a big afternoon when boss Craig Levein needed it most.

“Against Aberdeen at home, Hibs and Celtic, we are always at it,” captain Christophe Berra said. “Maybe because there’s no fear, there’s a bigger crowd and it’s live on television.

“We are happy with the result today and we will take positives from it. But we need to prove ourselves against the so called lesser teams.

“‘When they come here and sit in and make themselves hard to break down before hitting us in the counter-attack, that’s where we’ve struggled over the last six to twelve months.

“There’s not going to be a tougher game than against Livingston in next game.”

This could be the day that turns Hearts’ league campaign for the better. The next time these sides meet, a Betfred Cup final place will be at stake.

Berra said: “It showed we aren’t going to just turn up and be turned over. Hampden is a different game, it’s a bigger pitch and a completely different scenario.

“Rangers have good players, there’s no doubt about that. We will need the same kind of performance but even better at Hampden. It’s two or three games away and we need to get ourselves up that league and start winning games.

“We need to build from that and building a consistent team with performances which we know we can deliver.

“We have let ourselves down and we have let the club and the fans down in the last spell.

“I don’t know what the record is but it’s been well documented and we will take this result with a pinch of salt and try to build on it.”