KRIS BOYD has warned his Rangers team-mates that they are in danger of missing out on the end-of-season play-offs altogether unless they

rectify their disappointing form.

The Ibrox side have won just six of their last 15 fixtures in all competitions and lie third in the SPFL Championship, four points behind second-placed Hibernian with three games in hand.

However, Falkirk and Queen of the South are within touching distance of them with the Dumfries club scheduled to pay a visit to Govan in

just eight days' time.

Rangers were fortunate to escape from Falkirk with a 1-1 draw last Friday night and Boyd insists they cannot take a place in the top four for granted, particularly when it is clear that every club in the league now has the smell of blood in their nostrils when they come up against them.

"In years gone by, teams have feared coming up against Rangers whereas, right now, I don't think that's the case," said the striker at the start of a momentous week which will see the future of the current board decided at Friday's general meeting of shareholders. "Teams are going up against us, trying to play and are confident of winning the game.

"I think we have struggled a lot because teams have done that against us. That's true especially for players such as me that have come back. You have always been on the front foot against teams by creating chances and putting them under pressure, but it's not been the case this season.

"We need to get back to turning up and knowing that teams have got that fear factor against you.

"I just hope we can get the head down and work hard for the rest of the season and get ourselves ready for the play-offs if it is to be that. You're not a given to be in them with the teams round about us. There are a few teams fighting to be in them. We need to work hard between now and the end of the season to prove we're still up to speed and beat the teams round about us."

Boyd makes no excuses for what has been an inexcusably bad season. Rangers' sheer inability to close out games has cost them dear and the striker, who has just three league goals to his name, sees that particular problem as the main difference between them and the league's runaway leaders, Hearts.

"We've had a lack of momentum all season," he confessed. "We lost a couple of games at the start and then we went on a run where we went unbeaten for 14 or 15 games and won 12 of them or something. We've got it in us to do it, but we've had a few injuries there and the team's been unsettled again.

"It's disappointing for the club to come into the crucial part of the season when you want to be winning games and go to Falkirk and drop more points.

"I think Hearts are away, but we need to keep going and try to close that gap because you never know. The most important thing for us is to beat the teams around about us and at least give ourselves a bit of momentum going into the play-offs.

"I think Hearts have done what they've done because they can win the game ugly. When you look back over our performances, that's what has let us down this year."

Kenny McDowall, the caretaker manager at Rangers, claimed that scraping a draw at Falkirk was "a point gained". Boyd has a different view.

"We felt we had turned the corner, but found ourselves on the back foot for the majority of that game," he said. "We dug in and kept going right to the end, but, as I said last week, we have obviously got bigger problems than we think if that's what we are accepting.

"You can't afford to drop anything at this club. That's the nature of the beast and it's the same at every big club. You want to win every game. You have a responsibility to yourself, your fans and your team-mates to go out and win games. We've not done that."

Boyd refuses to use the battle for control of the club as some kind of explanation for what has unfolded on the park over the past six months. He also steers clear of detailing his views on what a victory for the club's former director, Dave King, would mean at Friday's greatly-anticipated EGM.

"It's not for me to speak about that," he said. "Those matters are above our heads. What we can concentrate on is going out on the pitch and winning games of football."