HAVING finally realised a lifelong ambition when he signed for Rangers in the summer, the difficulties the Ibrox club have experienced this season have affected Graham Dorrans more than most.

Nobody can accuse the Glasgow-born midfielder, who grew up in the tough Barlanark housing scheme in the east of the city dreaming of one day donning the light blue of his heroes, of not caring about their current plight.

Yet, Dorrans yesterday stressed that everyone at the Ladbrokes Premiership club, regardless of their nationality, irrespective of their allegiances, remains united and is firmly focused on delivering success.

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Pedro Caixinha’s remarks in the wake of the Betfred Cup semi-final defeat to Motherwell on Sunday – he publicly accused his players of embarrassing him, claimed they lacked a big game mentality and admitted he had been ashamed by their performance – suggested that divisions may be opening up behind the scenes.

Dorrans, though, maintained the players are desperate to return to winning ways in the league against Kilmarnock at home this evening and alleviate the pressure which is mounting on their manager.

“This is a massive club and I have been desperate to come to this club for over 10 years, since I have been a professional,” he said. “Coming here for me has been great. But it is difficult to come here in the circumstances we are in at the minute and losing on Sunday puts pressure on us.

“I think we are good enough to go and win the Kilmarnock game, build a bit of momentum and go on a run and get the club back to being successful again, challenging for league titles and challenging for cups. Sunday wasn’t acceptable, but I firmly believe that the group of boys we have got, the staff, the whole club, will get back to where we want to be.

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“Listen, not winning games at this club brings pressure on everyone – the players, the staff, everyone. We need to go out and put that right and win games and take the pressure off. This game is all about winning so ultimately we need to win games.

“I think it is collectively the whole group’s responsibility – the staff, the players, we all have to accept that as a group it wasn’t good enough.

“It is not just the manager that is under pressure, we are under pressure to go and win games as well. If we don’t we are going to fall too far behind our rivals and that won’t be acceptable."

Asked what the players’ relationship with Caixinha was like, Dorrans said: “It is good and everyone is pushing in the one direction. Everyone is behind him and trying to get wins for the football club.”

The 30-year-old declined to elaborate on what had been said in their debriefing after the cup semi-final defeat at Auchenhowie on Monday. “We had a chat about it,” he said. “What happens in our meetings will stay in there. We had a chat and, as disappointing as it is, we need to move on because we have got big games coming up.”

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Charlie Adam, the former Rangers midfielder, this week suggested that bringing in too many foreign imports had been detrimental to the Ibrox club, who fielded a starting line-up with just two Scots in it at the weekend, this season and expressed the view that the majority of their players should come from Britain. Dorrans, though, has faith in his team mates and believes it is irrelevant where they hail from.

“We just need players who can go out and win games,” he said. “Whether they are from Portugal, Columbia, Brazil, anywhere in the world, doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter if they’re British. As long as we go out and win games, that’s what we need. We need winners. At the moment, we’re not winners because we’re not winning games.

“The foreign boys who have come over know this club is renowned worldwide. You don’t just hear about Rangers when you’re about to sign.

“It is difficult to come and play for this club. It is a massive club. But everyone in that dressing room knows the standards needed to play for this club.”

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However, Dorrans did concede that Rangers would possibly have performed at a higher level had Lee Wallace, the club captain and left back who is out injured, and Kenny Miller, the striker who hasn’t featured since being disciplined in the wake of the defeat to Celtic last month, been involved at the weekend.

“They’ve been here a long time so they know what this club is all about,” he said. “Obviously, Lee’s injured and Kenny’s not been picked by the manager, but they are still in and around the place and are trying to keep spirits high. People like that know what it’s all about. Maybe we do miss them a little bit.”

Dorrans, who spent nine years in England playing for West Brom and Norwich City before joining Rangers in the close season, believes Rangers will find it difficult returning to winning ways against a Kilmarnock side who have just been lifted by the return of his former manager Steve Clarke this evening and will have to be at their best.

“I’ve worked under Steve Clarke so I know how organised he’ll have them having seen our game on Sunday,” he said. “He’ll have them fired up. He’s a good manager. We (West Brom) finished eighth in the league and had a terrific season so he was really good for us. I’m sure he’ll go down there and do a good job.

“It will be a very tough game. They’ve got some decent players and with the new manager coming in they’ll be fired up for it. They’re coming to Ibrox and playing against Rangers so I’m sure they will be fired up for it which means we’ll need to be to match for them."