Rangers midfielder Nicky Law admits he has struggled to get his head around the flak that comes with being an Ibrox player.

The Englishman arrived from Motherwell last summer and started off like a steam train as he helped send the Glasgow giants on a 32-game unbeaten run in League One.

But in the past fortnight, Ally McCoist's team have come in for sharp criticism after losing both the Ramsdens Cup final to Raith Rovers and Saturday's William Hill Scottish Cup semi-final against Dundee United.

Even before that a a string of below-par displays stretching back to the New Year saw Law and his team-mates panned.

It is a situation that the 26-year-old has found difficult to cope with.

"The pressure of playing for Rangers is completely different from anything I've ever been used to just because of the size of the club and the scrutiny it is under," he said. "The manager said when I signed that it can take people a year or two to settle in and you can see why.

"Everything you do, someone has an opinion on it. It can be difficult at times. For most of the season we have been told how bad we are, yet we have not lost a league game. It's strange.

"Up until January we were beating teams four and five-nil every week. We beat Stenhousemuir 8-0 and then went to Airdrie away and scored six. But since then we have not faced any team who are playing 4-4-2. They are all packing the midfield. That's tough.

"We've got some stick but I don't think you can ignore it with the amount of fans we have as well as the number of people who hate Rangers.

"Of course that has an impact on you. If you have someone coming to your work and telling you that you are rubbish it will affect you. But it's a learning curve. For all but two or three players in our changing room, it is new."

Law has been nominated for the PFA Scotland League One player-of-the-year award alongside team-mates Lee Wallace and Jon Daly and Ayr United's Michael Moffat after netting 11 goals in his first season at Ibrox.

But he believes the stick he has received this term will only help him improve ahead of next season's Championship campaign.

He said: "We've been criticised a lot this season and that takes a lot out of you mentally, but the biggest thing I will take out of this season is that I've learned you have to be mentally strong to play for this club. I think I have improved on that."

Rangers' 3-0 win over Forfar on Tuesday was their 30th of the third-tier campaign and moved them to within four games of their first unblemished league campaign since the Ibrox side won all 18 top-flight fixtures back in 1898-99.

But there are still plenty of red faces round Glasgow south side after they failed to see off Rovers at Easter Road.

Now Law admits the campaign had been "tainted" by the failure to place at least one cup in the trophy cabinet.

"You have to say it has," he conceded. "It was a huge disappointment and certainly knocked a lot of our confidence because it was a game we thought we should have won and we were favourites for.

"At the start of the season the aim was to win the league and anything else was a bonus. But I think as a squad we'll certainly look back on that Ramsdens final over the summer as the major disappointment."