IT was interesting to hear Mark Warburton say after Rangers’ defeat to St Johnstone that he still didn’t think there was much of a gulf between the Championship and the Premiership. I think you only say that if you’ve not played in the top division for a wee while. When you step up, you probably think you’ve got enough to cope, but the reality is often different.

Look at Hearts. They won the Championship by a country mile but they still brought in a raft of new players in the summer. Even my manager at Ross County, Jim McIntyre, gave the same boys an opportunity when he won promotion with Dunfermline and it didn’t work out. He still tells me now he regrets that.

People will point out that Hamilton came up and did well with the same players but I think that was different as they were fearless young boys with energy. But I think the other night was another sign for Rangers that they will likely need to strengthen again before they step up.

There is a danger in over-reacting to one game but I think Warburton was caught out the other night. I read his post-match comments where he talked about not defending well but at a higher level, better players will punish you for slack defending more than poorer players will. You can only make a real judgment on how ready your squad is when you play a better team like St Johnstone and you can get a better appreciation of all your strengths and weaknesses. I believe after the other night Warburton will now be thinking he’s maybe two or three players short of what is needed to compete in the Premiership.

We saw as well that he’s a manager who looks like he will stick to his guns regardless of the opposition. So we had the Rangers full-backs still bombing forward and that left the central defenders exposed to the pace of Michael O’Halloran and they were caught out. That is positive in a way as it shows Warburton believes in his strategy and in his players but it also ignores the fact that good players can hurt you if you’re not properly prepared for it. O’Halloran is the kind of player who can hurt a team even with all four defenders back in line, but having the full-backs pushed forward left Rangers exposed and St Johnstone took full advantage.

Warburton has managed at a high level in the English Championship but maybe he took it for granted that Scottish teams wouldn’t be good enough to hurt Rangers. But, as we have seen, there are teams in the Premiership who can. So I think if you still want to play your full-backs high up the pitch you have to have two central defenders who can handle going man to man, and a sitting midfielder who can come across to cover whichever full-back goes forward. If both bomb on against teams with pace in attack then you are asking for trouble.

Dave King had spoken publicly about Rangers looking to win one of the domestic cups so this was maybe a sign they still have a wee bit to go.

CELTIC will look forward to welcoming Fenerbahce in the Europa League on Thursday but they need to show restraint as well. When they are away from home, it is fine sitting in and hitting teams on the counter-attack but at Parkhead there will be the expectation on them to get forward all the time and that is when good teams can hurt you. They need to be patient and not commit to all out-attack as we have seen before the quality that the top European sides have in being able to pick off Scottish teams on the counter and before you know it, you are a goal or two down.

In some ways you can be at your most vulnerable when a home crowd urges you on and the players find themselves responding to that and committing too many to attack. So a patient, cautious approach might serve them better this week.

IAN Baraclough obviously wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea but I was sorry to see him leave Motherwell and want to wish him all the best. He got a bit of stick after saying he thought they should be looking to win the league but his intentions were good. He was a hard worker and it’s a shame he never got longer to try to turn things around, although that’s often how it is in football these days. Good luck to him in his next move.