MARK WARBURTON, the Rangers manager, last night savaged his side's late display against Queen of the South despite seeing them win 1-0 and move eight points clear once again in the Ladbrokes Championship.

The league leaders, whose advantage at the top of the second-tier table was cut to five points before kick-off when nearest rivals Hibernian beat Alloa Athletic at Easter Road, struggled to break down their rivals at Palmerston Park.

A stunning volley from Kenny Miller, who replaced Nicky Clark after an hour and netted his 100th goal in Scottish league football, ultimately ensured the Ibrox club triumphed

However, Warburton, whose side were without leading scorer Martyn Waghorn, was scathing about how his team performed towards the end of their third match in a row on an artificial pitch against Queens.

“It was an important three points and my first message to the players was ‘well done’ but that’s probably as poor as we’ve been all season in the last 20 minutes of the second half," he said

“We gave the ball away cheaply, we sat too deep and we gave them too much time and space. Wes Foderingham pulled off two or three outstanding saves. I’ve said before that we’ve played well and didn’t get the rewards, but today we’ll take that because we played poorly for the last 20 minutes.

“Kenny has trained really well and sets a good example. He came off the bench and got the goal which was really important.

“But as a squad we can be better. That was as poor as we’ve been all season in the last 20 minutes. But we’ve come to a tough venue against a good team in form and we’ve got three points.”

Warburton admitted his side had missed Martyn Waghorn, who suffered a knee injury in the 2-1 win over Kilmarnock in the Scottish Cup last week, and singled out keeper Foderingham, who pulled off two vital saves at the death, for special praise.

"I’m not going to say we won’t miss a guy who has scored 28 goals – of course we will," added Warburton. "But we have really good players on the bench. That tells you we are in good shape. We’ll miss Martyn but it’s about the squad.

“I think Wes is an outstanding player. He’s still young, but his distribution is great and he is good with the ball at his feet. His reaction saves are first class. You might say he’s not the tallest at 6ft 1in but he dominates his box as well. Wes has been outstanding.

“In a lot of games he doesn’t touch the ball for long periods but he maintains concentration well. All credit to him today, he made two or three great saves but he has been outstanding all season.

“He’s a young player who has come from playing in front of five, six seven thousand to being at home in front of forty-five or fifty thousand. He’s learning from it, dealing with it and handling the pressure that comes with. He’s a baby in terms of being a keeper at 24.”

James Fowler, the Queen of the South manager, felt his side, who lost their top scorer Derek Lyle to injury after half an hour, were unlucky not to get at least a draw from the game.

"I felt we were camped in a wee bit in the first half, with Rangers dominating possession, but we tweaked it at half time and that gave us more impetus," said Fowler

“They are a quality team and dangerous on the counter attack and you have to give them respect. It’s about how we fashion chances and I felt in the second half we created enough chances to at least get a point."