GIOVANNI VAN BRONCKHORST has defended the mentality of his misfiring champions after Rangers were held at home by Motherwell on Sunday.

But the Ibrox boss admits his side cannot afford to keep dropping points in the title race as they blew the chance to cut the gap to Celtic at the top of the Premiership.

Rangers saw a two goal lead - earned thanks to a Bevis Mugabi own goal and Fashion Sakala strike - at the break cancelled out by Jordan Roberts and Kaiyne Woolery.

The champions were again masters of their own downfall as they passed up a series of chances and failed to kill off the Steelmen as Motherwell produced an improved second half showing at Ibrox.

It was a bitter blow for Van Bronckhorst to suffer after seeing Celtic stumble for the first time after the winter break as they dropped two points at Hibernian earlier in the day.

But the Ibrox boss brushed off questions about the mental fortitude of his side as Rangers failed to kick-on from their Europa League triumph against Borussia Dortmund in midweek.

Van Bronckhorst said: "The mentality is good. I didn’t hear any complaints on Thursday about the mentality and it is the same players. It is only a couple of days later.

"I think the mentality is good. Sometimes these situations happen.

"We have to be more ruthless defensively, that is for sure, and we have to be more clinical in front of goal.

"If you have 30 chances, not all shots on goal, we had a lot of chances to score more goals. If you look back at the run after the break, getting four draws isn’t good enough and it has to be better, especially with the standards we want to have with this club.

"Of course we can do things better but I think the mentality of the players is what is needed to be successful. But obviously we cannot continue to dominate games and just get one point."