STEVEN GERRARD is confident Rangers can continue to rise to the challenge this season as they look to maintain their unbeaten run in the coming weeks.

The Gers returned to domestic action on Sunday after rounding off their Europa League Group D campaign with an impressive 2-0 win over Lech Poznan.

And it was to prove another pleasing afternoon for Gerrard as goals from James Tavernier and Connor Goldson clinched a 2-1 victory away to Dundee United.

Rangers face a Betfred Cup quarter-final with St Mirren in midweek and Gerrard is encouraged by the mentality and performance levels of his in-form side at present.

He said: "If you are using the same players, in this schedule and on the back of travelling, you could come to these places and be a bit flat mentally. It is trying to keep them fresh mentally and physically and we will try to help the players any way we can.

"But I couldn’t be any more proud in terms of the effort and application that they are giving every three or four days. They are handling all the challenges that are being thrown at them.

"Every challenge is tough, there are no easy games in this league. We try to learn from our experiences before and if you are not at it and don’t focus right to the end of the game then teams can derail you and anything can happen at any given moment.

"We are trying to guard against any complacency and any silly errors that are going to give us a bump on the road. We just need to keep being efficient and keep doing what we are doing because we are certainly in a fantastic moment.

"We switch competition but the game is just as important. We want to get to Hampden again and that is the next challenge.

"St Mirren will be tough and organised, as they always are, and they will be desperate to get to the semi-finals themselves.

"We need to make sure that we are in the right place mentally going there and I need to pick the right team. There may be a few changes and tweaks within that to have the right team to get a big win for us."