SASA PAPAC insists Rangers have no intention of pushing the panic button ahead of this weekend's clash with Celtic after dropping their first points of the season in Saturday's 1-1 draw at Aberdeen.
The Ibrox full-back believes Rangers were desperately unlucky to come away from Pittodrie with only a draw after starting the new Clydesdale Bank Premier League campaign with wins over Falkirk and Hearts.
David Weir's first-half header was cancel
led out on the stroke of half-time by Derek Young, before DaMarcus Beasley had a last-gasp winner disallowed for offside, a decision which appeared to be incorrect when studied on television.
Rangers had hoped to maintain their 100 per cent record ahead of this Sunday's lunchtime date at Celtic Park but Papac is confident Walter Smith's men will lift themselves again ahead of the first Old Firm derby of the season.
"It's only the beginning," he pointed out. "After 38 games we will see who the winner is. Every Old Firm game is hard and you want to win every game. It doesn't matter where you are in the table, you still want to win. We are still hurting about this game – we aren't thinking about Celtic so much."
Papac believes that Rangers' new recruits are already demonstrating what a big difference they make to the team compared to the side who crashed out of the Champions League at the start of the season.
"We have had two or three good games and I think this was our best performance," he said.
"Rangers can play better and better. Steven Davies is back now and Pedro Mendes is a really good player and Madjid Bougherra is also doing well so we have a really good team."
The full article contains 301 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.