RUSSELL MARTIN admits it was an opportunity missed for Rangers as they crashed to a 2-1 defeat to Hibernian on Saturday.

The Light Blues blew the chance to close the gap on Old Firm rivals Celtic and fell six points adrift of Aberdeen in the Premiership standings.

Neil Lennon’s side are now within touching distance of the Gers as they get set to play their game in hand against Partick Thistle tomorrow night.

And defender Martin knows Graeme Murty and his players must bounce back at the first attempt after another unexpected stumble on home soil.

He said: “One hundred percent. We were aware of that. It was on in the dressing room.

“We knew we had a big chance there to gain some points and we haven’t taken it. We also let Hibs get a bit closer to us.

“Now it is about how we bounce back on Tuesday. We have to make sure we pull away from Hibs again and make sure we are in a position where we can overtake Aberdeen at some point.

“I am enjoying it. That is why it was so disappointing to lose on Saturday.

“You can see how much it means to other teams when they play Rangers. Every game is huge at this football club.

“You saw with their celebrations at the end what it means to teams to come to Ibrox and win. That has to hurt us as a group of players.

“But, like I said, we are a new team really, there has been a lot of new signings and the manager hasn’t been in his job for too long. We are a work in progress.

“But you haven’t got too much time at this football club. You need to keep winning when you’re working.

“We didn’t had much time on the training pitch last week, we won’t this week either. We need to find a way to go and win on Tuesday. But there were plenty of positives to take from the second half. We just need to start the game better.”