KENNY MILLER admits Rangers have to start hitting top gear in the Premiership after losing further ground in the title race against Kilmarnock.

Mark Warburton’s side saw another two points slip through their grasps on Friday night as they were held to a 1-1 draw at Rugby Park.

After falling behind to a Kris Boyd strike, the Gers pulled themselves level after the break thanks to a superb free-kick from James Tavernier.

But there was to be no late winner for the visitors as they dropped points for the second time in four Premiership outings.

And Miller knows Warburton’s side have to improve as attentions turn to the first Old Firm clash of the campaign a week on Saturday.

He told rangers.co.uk: “There was a lot of pressure without any real chances to score and their goal was under siege for the last 20-25 minutes but we just never seemed to get that break in the box to create that game winning chance.

“We spoke about it last week after Motherwell and they are very similar games, you go 1-0 down and get a goal at a similar time and then you have to go and try and win it.

“But we keep giving teams a goal to start and we need to resilient and hard to break down, we must start games like that and if we can get up to that tempo and intensity from the kick-off then our job will be a lot easier.

“We need to move the ball quicker; we need to have more penetration, whether that be running forward or passing forward.

“You saw that in the second-half against Motherwell and again here where it was a lot more evident than the first-half.

“It would have been a lot better going into the international break if we had won but there is nothing we can do about this game now, all we can do is move on, look to improve and get better going into Celtic.”