YOU are only as good as your last game. The next one is the most important for Rangers.

Having lost one and won one, Mark Warburton’s side will now round off their hat-trick of Premiership fixtures against Hearts this weekend.

Victory over Aberdeen on Saturday went some way to easing the pressure that had built in the aftermath of the defeat at Tynecastle in midweek, but Warburton and his players will be well aware that another poor performance or adverse result will undo their efforts and remove the Ibrox feel good factor.

Rangers may have repaired some of the self-inflicted damage they sustained in the opening weeks of the campaign recently but the recovery job is still far from complete this term. The Light Blues ended the weekend second in the standings but they could have dropped to fourth by teatime on Saturday if they can’t follow up their Dons triumph with another win on home soil.

Having come under fire for the manner of their defeat to the Jambos on Wednesday, Rangers responded in the right way against Derek McInnes’ side as goals from Kenny Miller and Lee Hodson clinched a deserved win.

“It was two teams who were hurting and they wanted to make amends to the supporters for the previous game and that showed,” former Gers star Jimmy Nicholl told Herald Sport. “You could see that they were more competitive than in the Hearts game, and Aberdeen were more competitive than the Celtic game.

“There was a determination from both sets of players to win 50-50s and win second balls. That doesn’t sound like a Mark Warburton side but sometimes your pride hurts when you get criticism and you could see the players wanted to make amends.

“You can say that Aberdeen have had two bad results but they are not going to just crumble. As far as Rangers as concerned, it was important for them.

“Mark said that they had won five games out of seven, which was right, but at Rangers the fans only look at the last performance. You can win five in seven but it is about the last performance and the last result. You can’t turn round and say ‘I don’t know why they are upset after the Hearts game because our record was good’. If Rangers can improve again from the weekend going into the next game then they will be fine.”

Ibrox has not always been home sweet home for Rangers this term as a handful of points have been dropped and the Light Blue legions haven’t been sent home happy.

It was a different story against Aberdeen, though, as Warburton’s side emerged as deserved winners from a competitive, highly-charged affair. There was more tempo to the Gers’ play and more energy about the team as an old rivalry was resumed and the Dons were defeated.

The battling qualities on show were heartening for supporters and Nicholl believes there are merits in continuing to tinker with the Ibrox blueprint.

“There is a time to knock the ball about at the back and there is a time to just win a game of football,” he said. “If the opposition are not allowing you to do that there is no shame in knocking the ball long and making a longer pass.

“There were times I was watching and thought ‘they could have dropped that into a corner’. Garner was in the centre forward position and the midfield were attracted to the ball.

“It is easier when you are sitting watching it than when you are down there and it is your decision to make.

“It is a lift for Rangers and I am sure the supporters will be pleased with the way they went about it.”

Warburton played down suggestions that Rangers turned in their best performance of the campaign on Saturday but the result was hugely significant for the manager and his players.

The 54-year-old revealed his squad had been irked by some of the criticism and comments directed their way during their recent troubles, but Nicholl insists the headlines and opinions should be brushed aside within the walls of Ibrox.

“You have to be bigger than that, you really do,” he said. “The Rangers players and manager can turn around and say ‘what is all this criticism about? We are sitting second in the league. What do they want?’ But the demands and expectations there are vast.

“It is great to play in front of 50,000 fans, but can you handle being booed by 50,000 fans? That is where the character of the players come through and why the likes of Halliday are important. You need people that know what it takes, know what it is like. Sometimes you just have to accept the criticism and get on with it and prove you can handle it.

“The worst thing that can happen is when players start walking into positions where they can’t receive the ball. That is when you know that mentally they have gone. As long as they keep trying to do things and keep getting results then there will be no criticisms. They have to accept the responsibility and I am sure they do.”