Martin frustrated at stats behind Rangers' start

Russell Martin is yet to win a Scottish Premiership match as Rangers head coach

Rangers head coach Russell Martin insists people need to look at the context behind the statistic that shows they have faced 119 shots this season.

Martin's men have been criticised for being too open in their opening eight matches, having kept only two clean sheets.

They have conceded seven goals in their past three games against Viktoria Plzen, Alloa Athletic and Club Brugge, including three in the opening 20 minutes against the Belgians on Wednesday.

"It's been frustrating to concede three against Brugge. That was a psychological thing because we had conceded early and then don't react and don't do our job properly, so were a bit flustered," Martin said.

"The others, we're playing in Europe against teams that are throwing caution to the wind, and Alloa where we make 10 changes. I understand the narrative but I also have to contextualise it a little bit.

"Outside of the madness the other day in that half an hour period Jack Butland had very little to do in the in the second half. Very, very little.

"We have to live there all the time. The better we are, the cleaner we are, the less chances we'll give the opposition. But we need to be more aggressive and we need to emphasise certain things to the players that are really, really important.

"We've also had the most shots [at 35] in the two games in the league so we need to do more with that."

Rangers face a trip to Paisley on Sunday to take on a St Mirren side who have taken seven points from their past three Premiership meetings with the Ibrox side.

"It's an exciting game for us because we have to go there ready to show how much we can compete, how much we can fight as a team in the same way we did in the second half against Brugge in really difficult circumstances," said Martin.

"We have to turn the game into one that we want but to do that you have to really fight for it and really earn it against St Mirren because they're really well organised, really well coached, really aggressive, powerful physically, so it's a good challenge."