Title talk put on hold

NIKO Kranjcar reckons Rangers should put thoughts of a title challenge to the back of their minds until Christmas.

Gers avoided registering their worst start to a league campaign since 1989 with Saturday’s 2-0 win over Partick Thistle, with the Croatian and Andy Halliday scoring in the first half.

The victory — j ust their third of the Ladbrokes Premiership campaign so far — moves the Light Blues up to fifth but they remain seven points adrift of rampant leaders Celtic, who have a game in hand.

Mark Warburton’s Ibrox side were expected to mount a stiff challenge to Brendan Rodgers’ Hoops on their return to the top flight but now Kranjcar says his side should put that matter on the back-burner for the next few months.

The former Tottenham and QPR midfielder — Gers’ stand-out performer against Thistle — said: “I think at the moment we shouldn’t think about it. I think we should think about winning the next game.

“It is not in our hands in respect of the points we’ve dropped already. I think we learned that the most important game is the next one coming up.

“We can talk come Christmas where we are in the title race. The one thing that is important for us is to concentrate on ourselves and rising our level of football and hopefully winning the next game that comes our way.”

Ray McKinnon