Rangers midfielder Scott Arfield urges team-mates to use Old Firm defeat as fuel to their fire for rest of the season

Rangers midfielder Scott Arfield has urged his team-mates to use the pain of their Old Firm thrashing against Celtic to drive them on for the remainder of the season.

The Scottish champions were swept aside by the Hoops on Wednesday night, with all three goals coming in the first-half at Parkhead.

As a result Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s side lost their lead at the top of the Premiership and Arfield confirmed the Gers squad re-watched the entire 90 minutes to identify and address areas of weakness.

Speaking ahead of Sunday’s Premiership clash against Hearts, he said: “You reflect on every game, of course you do. I think every player watched it back.

“If you don’t do that then you won’t ever more forward both collectively and individually.

“You don’t forget that feeling, walking off the pitch with that disappointment. That needs to be the fuel to your fire going on for the remaining 14 games.

“It was a disappointing night all round. We never really got going in the first-half and at half-time the game got away from us.

“There rotation caused us a lot of problems, we knew what to expect for the first 10-15 minutes of the game.

“They took confidence from scoring an early goal but they never troubled us in the second half so we can take positives from that.

“We felt if we could get an early goal (at the start of the second half) then the game could’ve been different but it wasn’t to be, so we move on to another massive game on Sunday.

“Every game that we go into we think we can win. Wednesday night was one that got away from us but you’ve always got opportunities to put that right.

“We need to react in the right way, stick together and go and get the result that everyone needs.”

Rangers now trail their rivals by a point as Ange Postecoglou’s side continue to build up momentum in their quest to reclaim the Premiership title.

However, Arfield admits the league is far from over and reckons the Light Blues must prioritise victories over performances as they aim to stop their mini slump in form.

He added: “There’s no margin for error. That’s always the challenge playing for Rangers. With the lead that we had and the fact we’ve not got that anymore, we need to get back to winning ways.

“Winning games is the most important thing, the performance comes second, especially when you’re on a run like this.

“If the two marry together then it’s the perfect storm so hopefully we can get back to winning games and take confidence from it.

“We’ve lost two league games this season and we don’t want to lose any more. If we win all of our remaining games then we’ll be in a better position than we currently are.

“It was a bad night for everyone connected with the club, we can’t sugar-coat it but there’s still a lot of football to be played.”

Deadline day signing Aaron Ramsey could be in contention to make his Rangers debut at Ibrox this weekend and Arfield believes the on-loan Juventus midfielder will aid their title push massively.

Arfield stated: “He’s a terrific player. When I played against him (at Burnley), he caused you enormous problems.

“He was one of the main players at Arsenal you had to do your research on because you knew he was going to create that opportunity or score from midfield.