AS landmarks go this won’t be one celebrated with any great gusto and yet Rangers manager Mark Warburton warmly welcomed the first time his side have won three top tier matches in succession since 2012.

He would also have been more than pleased to get this game out of the way without dropping any points because, as everyone in Scottish football is happy to say, nobody likes going to Hamilton.

What Warburton can also take from this result is that a month or so ago there would have been every chance his side would not have worked out a way to get past a resolute Hamilton team. This was also the best performance by Martyn Waghorn, who scored twice, has had in months.

A title race does seem highly unlikely, vergin; however, if Rangers can keep winning – it’s Inverness at home then away at St Johnstone next – ahead of the visit of Celtic to Ibrox on Hogmanay then it could be said, with less conviction than the Rangers supporters would like, that the gap wasn’t unassailable – just really, really big – before the two old pals say hello for the third time this season.

There was nothing wrong with the way Hamilton began their night’s work. The ball was passed crisply across their never-popular plastic pitch with both accuracy and pace, as the home side made it clear their intention was to take the game to Rangers.

There was no chance of them sitting back, hoping for something to happen.

In saying all that, it was Rangers who created the first decent chance on 13 minutes with a move started and almost ended by right-back Lee Hodson. He showed great conviction to get down the wing before exchanging the ball with Jason Holt and his shot from the edge of the box gave Hamilton keeper Gary Woods a bit of trouble.

The action was frenetic enough but it was mostly taking place outside of either penalty area. When either team did get the ball into the box there was always a defender in the way to make sure nothing too exciting happened.

Then all of a sudden the game almost produced an odd goal. From a Lee Wallace shy, Joe Garner’s head flick towards goal didn’t seem to contain a lot of danger but Woods lost his bearings and made a hash of touching the ball over his crossbar. Holt had sniffed out the keeper was in bother but was a fraction too slow to score an easy goal as Woods managed to make amends.

Hamilton’s first proper glimpse of a goal came on 34 minutes and it was all about the determination of Greg Docherty. The midfielder took on James Tavernier for speed, no mean feat, and the Rangers player, who started in a forward position, looked to have won the race and was all-set to usher the ball out of the park.

Docherty, however, was having none of it and stole the ball back on the touchline. He took a touch before sending a shot across the face of goal. He wasn’t so far away from an opener.

That was to be the highlight of the Hamilton man’s night as he took a kick and made way for Massimo Donati before-half-time, and there a busy end to the half.

Hamilton captain Michael Devlin bravely got his head in the way of a Waghorn shot which seemed to be heading home, a Garner net-bound header was cleared by Scott McMann and Holt wriggled through a couple of tackles before his shot, which took a slight deflection, fell a few inches wide of the post.

Donati had a crack from distance and then a fine pass by Garner found Waghorn whose left foot shot was kept out by fingers of Woods.

And with seconds before the tea and biscuits, Rangers scored. Waghorn played the ball out to Holt and then went looking for a return, which he got, and the Englishman’s header from the edge of the box was inch-perfect, the ball ending up in the bottom corner via the woodwork.

Waghorn was at it again a few minutes following the restart, his low shot, which followed a couple of step-overs, was held by Woods.

Garner caught Georgios Sarris with his arm and then minutes later did the same with Devlin who was far from happy. No booking was forthcoming for reasons best known to referee Alan Muir.

Hamilton’s mood wasn’t about to improve. On 51 minutes, Wallace lobbed the ball into the Hamilton six-yard box and Waghorn wasn’t going to miss.

Hamilton never gave up. A shot Alex D’Acol flashed across goal and behind, but Rangers should have gone ahead on 59 minutes when Waghorn brilliantly played in Tavernier who was denied by brave and alert goalkeeping.

Garner’s shot on the dip went agonisingly close and then on 69 minutes Tavernier ran past several Hamilton players and ruined all his hard work with a woeful finish.

Hamilton gave themselves a chance with 12 minutes to go. Dougie Imrie was the length of the stud away from getting to the ball in front of goal and then, within a few seconds, a mistake by Andy Halliday allowed Danny Redmond the chance to find Imrie and this time he didn’t miss.

It was an un-needed reminder that the Rangers defence are always good for a goal. As it was, they had enough in the bank to see out the win.

Hamilton: Woods; Gillespie, Devlin, Sarris, McMann; Imrie, Docherty (Donati 39), MacKinnon, Redmond (Bophy 81); Crawford; D’Acol (Bingham 63)

Substitutes not used: Longridge, Cunningham, Hughes, Thomson

Rangers: Foderingham; Hodson, Kiernan, Wilson, Wallace; Tavernier, Halliday, Holt; Waghorn (Forrester 76), Garner, McKay

Substitutes: Gilks, Hill, Miller, Dodoo, Forrester, Senderos, O'Halloran

Referee: Alan Muir