Rangers captain James Tavernier has confessed it was a "very disappointing performance from everybody" after witnessing Ross County record their first ever victory over his side - and dealt a severely damaging blow to their Scottish Premiership title ambitions. 

Rangers were ahead at the break through Jack Baldwin's own goal, but the alarm bells were already ringing that it wasn't going to be a straight forward afternoon. 

The Ibrox club had the opportunity to go within a point of league leaders, Celtic, if they triumphed in Dingwall, ahead of their game in hand against Dundee on Wednesday. 

However, that chance was scuppered when Ross County hit three second half goals without reply before Tavernier himself netted a late consolation from the penalty spot. 

And the experienced defender bemoaned the manner Rangers conceded all three goals as he expressed his disappointed to Sky Sports. 

He stated: "If you concede three goals you're always asking for a tough game. I thought defensively, conceding those three goals in the second half was really poor.

"It's a very disappointing performance from everybody. But there's six games to play and we'll obviously be fully focused on Wednesday now."

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The warning signs were there during the first 45 minutes, and Tavernier admitted the Rangers squad were told by manager Philippe Clement at the interval that Ross County could cause an upset, and to drive higher standards if they wanted to hold onto maximum points.

That didn't go to plan, though, as the Dingwall-based outfit struck twice in quick succession after the restart to leave the visitors stunned.

Asked about the sluggish start to the second half, he said: "The gaffer warned us and we didn't respond. We started really poorly in the second-half. But the game is done, we're obviously disappointed that we've dropped the points.

"We've got six games to play and we've obviously got to step it up now for Wednesday and the remainder of the season."

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It was a damaging blow for Rangers, however Tavernier refused to get caught up in any title race talk at this stage. 

"We never look at it like that," the Rangers full-back added after being questioned about falling further behind Celtic.

"We always look at it game by game and obviously, this game is really disappointing. We've got to put it behind us now, we'll look back on it and show how we can improve. 

"Today's obviously really disappointing. It was the performance levels that were really poor and we've got to hold our hands up as a team and really give a performance that we all put in during the week and give the fans a performance but it wasn't there today."