Martyn Waghorn talks up Rangers' Championship title hopes

Rangers striker Martyn Waghorn insists the Ibrox side are favourites to win the Championship - because they are man for man better than title rivals Hibernian.

The Light Blues have been criticised in recent weeks for some poor displays but hit back in ruthless fashion on Monday as they beat Alan Stubbs' side 4-2 in the top-of-the-table clash at Ibrox.

Gers had won just three times since losing in Leith at the start of November and while Mark Warburton's team were wobbling, Hibs clawed themselves level with the league leaders.

But their 17-game unbeaten run was brought to a sudden halt as Gers comfortably saw off their Easter Road rivals, even after being reduced to 10 men for the final 20 minutes when Andy Halliday saw red.

The pre-match build-up was dominated by the mind-games battle as Stubbs insisted Gers were feeling the strain being applied by his team's relentless form.

But Waghorn now says there is no doubting who the frontrunners for top spot are.

It was one of those games where we knew what we had to do and everybody was on point,'' said the frontman, who completed the scoring with Gers' fourth in stoppage time.The previous weeks everything was a bit slow and the tempo wasn't great and teams have capitalised.

But the boys started from the front and it set the tempo. Some of the play was different class and Hibs couldn't handle it.

We heard what had been coming out of the Hibs camp in the build-up and to be honest I think they were just doing it to get themselves motivated. We didn't need to read anything or say anything - we just wanted to focus on ourselves and play our game. That's what we did.

We don't need to get involved in that stuff. We know who we are and what we want to do. They can say what they want. Ultimately we've got the better players and we'll do our talking on the park.

Are we favourites for the title now? Yeah, 100 per cent. We've got a better squad, a better team and that showed. Even when we went down to 10 men we didn't really look in any trouble.''

Gers started the season with 11 straight league victories and could have claimed an 11-point lead had they triumphed on their last visit to Edinburgh.

Their advantage now stands at just three but Englishman Waghorn hopes his team can stretch it out by setting off on another winning run, starting on Saturday when they visit Dumbarton.

The former Wigan striker said: You know when you come to Rangers you are expected to win things. When you don't perform at your best you will come in for criticism. But we did our talking on the pitch. We didn't come out shouting and screaming or crying - we handled it really well and put in a really solid team performance.

The way we started the season, I think we should be a few more points clear at the top but we've had a few strange results recently.

However, it will be nice to start the new year on the back of a win and hopefully we can build on the win and really get some momentum again and try to pull away from the pack.''