Celtic’s surprising defeat at St. Mirren ahead of the international break opened up the title race a little in the Scottish Premiership.

 

Rangers are just two points behind the champions going into this weekend’s game and could go top of the league momentarily if they manage to take all three points from a visit to Hearts on Saturday.

 

 

James Tavernier recently claimed that Rangers have enough time to wrestle the title back from Celtic, but Ferguson insisted that his former side need to improve their performances soon.

 

The former Rangers captain stressed that they must win at Hearts to put some pressure on Celtic ahead of their game against Motherwell.

 

 

Ferguson is confident that Celtic will also win but feels it is a chance for Rangers to apply some pressure and see how the champions react to it.

 

The former Rangers star said on the Go Radio Football Show: “There is plenty of time but they need to up their performances.

 

 

“That needs to start at 12:30 at Tynecastle on Saturday.

 

“It was a surprise result last week in terms of Celtic, I never saw it coming.

 

“Nobody would have seen St. Mirren taking three points off Celtic now.

 

“Now there are only two points in it and Rangers need to go to Tynecastle and make sure they come away with three points and put a bit of pressure on Celtic.

 

“I fully expect Celtic to beat Motherwell but you never know.

 

“You go one point ahead, you are top of the league, there is pressure for a period of time and you throw it back at Celtic and see whether they can handle it or now.”

 

Rangers have made an inconsistent start to their season and have even struggled in their Champions League group.