Warburton more concerned about Christmas gift than Stubbs snipe

Mark Warburton insists he has got more to worry about than Alan Stubbs' latest sniping at Rangers - like making a last-minute dash to the shops for his wife's Christmas present.

Hibernian boss Stubbs has upped the stakes again in the mind-games battle as the Championship's top two prepare to face off at Ibrox on Monday.

The former Celtic defender this week suggested Gers were in denial over the slump that has seen them drop 10 points in the last two months, saying: "You can deny something as much as you want, but the fact is it's happening."

The Light Blues looked set to stroll towards the title after winning their first 11 league games of the campaign.

But they have failed to win four of their last six matches since losing at Easter Road at the start of November and Stubbs insists his men have "played a part'' in that wobble after drawing level with their rivals on points.

It is not the first time the Leith boss has passed comment on Warburton's men.

But the Ibrox manager claimed he was more concerned about finding a gift for wife Liz to open on Christmas Day than what his rival had to say.

"Not at all," he said when asked if he was irritated by Stubbs' claims.

"Irritation is not having bought the wife's Christmas present yet. That's a crisis in my books. I'll have that resolved this afternoon though.

"I am not even going to refer to other people. How they see Rangers is their prerogative, their choice. It's a democratic world we live in and they can say what they want.

"It's about what I say here about Rangers that is important to us. So as for people's comments, say what you've got to say. It's a free world. I know here how we are, where we are and what we're hopefully going to achieve."

But Warburton did have some advice for his Leith counterpart, saying: "I would just talk about my own team personally. That's all I'm going to do. My focus is on Rangers, that hasn't changed from day one of the season. That will never change."

The Rangers boss has long insisted his team are not feeling the pressure of the promotion race bud did concede they switched off for spells during Saturday's 2-1 defeat at Falkirk.

Gers went in level at half-time but were caught out by Will Vaulks' winner 10 minutes after the break.

However, Warburton now hopes the kind of good fortune which saw referee Willie Collum award Falkirk a penalty - against Danny Wilson for a foul two yards outside the box - and later helped Danny Rogers keep out a last-gasp penalty from Martyn Waghorn will go his team's way when they square up to their nearest challengers.

The Englishman - who confirmed the club had received "the right answers" after contacting the SFA to discuss Collum's performance at the weekend - said:"`We had a bad 15 minutes at Falkirk and we have to improve in certain areas.

"If a club like Rangers drops a point you're disappointed. We have to learn from it.

"I worked for an owner at my last club Brentford, a very, very smart individual, and he spoke about the random nature of football. The ball dropping to a centre-forward or the defender. Stuff you can't predict.

"Sometimes results don't really reflect the true performance. We know there have been games we've dominated but not taken all three points.

"We know what we have to do to get the points and the rewards but we're not overly concerned because we know the performance levels have been decent.

"Nothing will be won or lost long-term on Monday. It's the next three points. It will be a tough challenge. We're facing an opponent on form but it will be packed Ibrox with an expectant crowd behind us. We're looking forward to it."