'Rangers have lost the fear factor... most teams would rather go to Ibrox right now than Tynecastle'

Russell Martin is finding it hard to turn the tide at Rangers because opponents no longer fear his team, says former Ibrox midfielder Kevin Thomson.

Martin’s men won their first league game at the sixth attempt against Livingston on Sunday but still sit eighth in the table, nine points behind early leaders Hearts.

Thomson feels his old club’s predicament is summed up by his belief that other sides would rather face the Light Blues than Derek McInnes’s buoyant Tynecastle team at present.

‘It makes it difficult when you get off to a poor start, because teams start to fear you less,’ said Thomson. ‘And if you don’t have that fear factor when you’re one of the big boys, it makes it easier for the opposition.

‘Hearts are quickly growing that. I listened to John McGlynn (after his Falkirk side lost 3-0 at Hearts on Saturday) and he was talking about how good they were, so teams will go to Tynecastle now thinking how good they are.

‘At the moment Hearts are growing and Rangers are not. So if you’re an opposition player you’d probably rather go to Ibrox than Tynecastle at the moment, which is not a good thing for Rangers.’

Martin has been subjected to vociferous calls for his sacking from supporters after winning just five of his 15 matches in charge — and the angry chants continued even after Max Aarons’ stoppage-time winner at Livi.

Asked if he felt Martin could ride out the storm, Thomson said: ‘I hope so, just because I’ve got humanity. You never want to see anyone ... listen, we’re all involved in football, whether you’re in the media, pundits, ex-players, players or managers, you want to see people do well, don’t you?

‘I get rival fans want to see other teams fail or get bragging rights or whatever but, just with the human touch, really, it’s never nice to see.

‘It’s been toxic, with the protests only last week. Getting the result against Hibs never changed anything, really, and then you have the disappointment in Europe (against Genk), the narrative continues the same.

‘Then you score late against Livingston and the narrative is still the same, so they certainly need a big performance, and the big performances need to come pretty quickly. I just hope for Russell and his staff that they can try and change it.

‘It’s never nice to see when the goal goes in and then the fans still call for the manager. The only way that you can change a narrative is winning games.

‘They’ve made that start. They’ve got a European game on Thursday (away to Sturm Graz), then Falkirk, definitely games they should be expected to win, all due respect to the opposition.

‘But if there’s another hiccup just around the corner, it’ll be hard to ever change it. Sunday gives them something to build on but they’ve certainly got a long way to go to try and change that narrative,’ added Thomson, who was promoting The Warm-Up, William Hill’s weekly YouTube show and podcast.