NICKY LAW hopes Rangers have gone some way to silencing their critics after taking their third SPFL Premiership scalp of the season with victory over Kilmarnock at Ibrox.
Ally McCoist's side have come in for much criticism of late, their Championship title aspirations suffering two major setbacks - a home draw with Alloa Athletic and defeat by Hearts at Tynecastle.
The pressure was firmly on Rangers ahead of the Kilmarnock tie in the fourth round of the William Hill Scottish Cup but they responded in style, easing to a deserved 3-0 triumph.
Law scored spectacular efforts either side of a Kris Boyd goal in a tie watched by fewer than 15,000 supporters yesterday, but Law was pleased with a far more accomplished performance.
He said: "We have come in for a lot of criticism and a lot flak in the last two weeks for our results against Alloa and Hearts, and rightly so. The most important thing about the Kilmarnock match was a victory.
"Our confidence had taken a bit of a bruising in the last fortnight and it was not a great football match.
"In terms of our work rate and our endeavour we were right at it from the first whistle. We were desperate to win to get our confidence levels up again.
"Now we are coming into a key period and hopefully this will be the start of another good run for us.
"The last few weeks have not been good enough and the players know that. Results have not been great and the fans were within their rights to stay away. The match was also on TV and a lot of people probably stayed at home and watched it there.
"We just wanted to get a victory and build our confidence levels again as we were on a good run before the Alloa game and playing some good stuff. We want to get back to that."
Rangers will discover their last-16 opponents when the draw is made at Hampden today after they took another step towards the national stadium.
McCoist's side have seen off Inverness Caledonian Thistle and St Johnstone this season and Law insists the draw holds no fears for Rangers.
He said: "We know on our day we feel we can beat anybody. Unfortunately for us at times this season that consistency has not been there.
"When we are at it like we have been against the three SPFL Premiership teams in the cup - Inverness, St Johnstone and Kilmarnock, who are all good sides from the league above - we know we can beat them.
"We also kept clean sheets against all three of them too. We go into these cup ties confident and we feel that we can beat anybody."
Rangers manager McCoist is hopeful that Kris Boyd's goal can kick-start the striker's resurgence after he came off the substitutes' bench to help Rangers into the fifth round of the Scottish Cup.
The striker was again overlooked at Ibrox as McCoist elected to pair Jon Daly and Kenny Miller in his forward line but made the most of his second-half cameo.
Boyd made the tally 2-0 seconds after he and Nicky Clark were introduced, with Nicky Law's second goal of the game adding a shine to the scoreline for Rangers. "You are always tempted to start Boydy. He is capable of scoring goals against anybody. It would be crazy of me to say you
are not tempted to play him,"
said McCoist.
"But we just felt that him coming on a little bit fresher, having taken him out of it again, might be what he needs. He might benefit from it.
"As he's said himself, the
team is far and away the
most important thing. From Boydy's point of view, introducing him later on in the game might help him.
"The way it turned out, Jon
and Kenny were working the defenders really hard.
"So when Boydy comes on
later, maybe the defenders are just not so sharp as they were at the start of the game. Putting on the pace of Nicky and goal threat of Boydy worked out well.
"I hope he can kick on from that. It was a good finish from him and you could feel everyone's relief and delight for him."
Rangers next return to action on Wednesday night when
they face Alloa Athletic in the semi-finals of the Petrofac Training Cup.
But McCoist could again be without the services of left-back Lee Wallace due to an ankle
injury as the Ibrox side gear up to play on the plastic pitch at the Indodrill Stadium.
The Rangers manager added: "He is feeling better but I am not sure about the surface. With Waldo's injury, we would have to be really, really confident, and so would he, that he would be fine to play. We will assess him in the next couple of days."
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