Wallace determined to make Rangers dressing room a positive place

Rangers skipper Lee Wallace says his new year's resolution will be to shut out negative vibes from the Ibrox dressing room.

The Gers captain wants to ensure the drama is confined to thrilling action on the pitch.

There were plenty of ups and downs on Saturday as the Championship leaders were held to a 2-2 draw by Morton.

The match took place exactly a year after news broke that boss Ally McCoist had handed in his notice.

It was a bleak time for the left-back, who was left out of the team which suffered a 2-0 defeat at Queen of the South later that evening after the death of his grandfather.

There was further turmoil for the club too as their promotion push collapsed under caretaker boss Stuart McCall, but, with Mark Warburton now leading the team and Dave King in charge at boardroom level, Wallace believes things are looking up for the Light Blues.

Now, looking ahead to the title race with Hibernian, Wallace has vowed to maintain a cheery outlook as he plots Rangers' Premiership return.

Speaking as the club's players visited sick youngsters at Glasgow's Royal Hospital for Children, he said: "Looking back a year, it was a tough time. That day I had my own personal bereavement. I lost my granddad that day, so it was a double hit for me and we ended up getting beat by Queens as well.

"There's been a lot of ups and downs in my Rangers career, more so after the initial year when we went into administration.

"It has been turbulent, but we are now focusing on the positives and it's nice to see we are sticking to the back pages as opposed the front.

"There is still stuff ongoing which is away from us and outwith our control, but I'm taking the stance that I'm going to take a positive look going forward and I'm going to instil that positive vibe into the players. We want to put all these negative times behind us and for the fans, who deserve it most, we want to get back to where we should be playing and give them the success they deserve."

Wallace and his team-mates will have to step things up over the next fortnight, however, if they are to stop the air of gloom descending once more on Ibrox.

Saturday's stalemate with Ton was another demonstration that Warburton's side are not playing the same cavalier brand of football they showed at the start of the season.

They travel to third-place Falkirk on Saturday before their December 28 showdown with Hibs in Govan - two games which could yet come to define their season.

But asked if victory in both would send out an emphatic statement about his team's intentions for the new year, Wallace cautiously replied: "That would just be six points for us. We know the expectation levels and the flak we come in for. The only way to beat that is by performing."

Wallace joined his manager in leading a post-match debrief after dropping two points against Jim Duffy's Greenock men.

He dismissed suggestions the players had been involved in a shouting match, but did encourage the quieter members of Warburton's group to make themselves heard.

"We've already started analysing Saturday's game, but we're well aware we were below our usual standards," he said. "That was the feedback the players gave when the manager asked what we thought of the game.

"We're a very honest group. If anything, certain individuals could probably talk more, even the younger lads.

"That's how we break games down and how we improve. The words I used were that it's not doom and gloom.

"We know teams won't open up against us. They will play counter-attack and sit deep. We won't moan about that, though. It's about how we find a way through them."