Two draws and four points lost still haven’t dampened spirits inside Ibrox(Image: Getty Images)

Cyriel Dessers reckons the gap between where Rangers are and where they want to be is only down to a few percentage points.

But right now, an inch is as good as a mile as far as the irate Ibrox support are concerned.

Two games played and four points spilled is the brutal truth of Russell Martin ’s opening two games as Gers boss.

Those numbers certainly aren’t adding up to anything positive for a support simply sick and tired of seeing their team fail to produce when the pressure is on domestically.

But reading between the lines, Dessers can see a plot line emerging which he believes can lead to a happy ending for the Light Blue legions.

There’s been moments, flashes of quality, that offer a glimpse at what Martin has planned for this team.

Dessers, though, is well aware it will be his side that find themselves zapped if they don’t plug in and start producing full 90 minute displays soon.

Asked how convinced he was that Martin could turn things around to mount a title challenge, he said: “I’m very convinced, because I see him in the building every time, how he is on the pitch, how he is in the video meetings.

“He tries to transfer that to us as a group as well. Obviously, that cannot happen in one week, but I think we’ve already seen some flashes of that, for example, on Tuesday, against Plzen. But, you want to see that twice a week.”

The Rangers fans thought they had been given a peak into the future on Wednesday night as they watched their team sweep Plzen aside with a 3-0 triumph.

But it was a painful blast from the past on Saturday as Gers served up a display every bit as dismal as the results that previously cost Gio van Bronckhorst, Michael Beale and Philippe Clement their jobs in recent years.

“It’s very difficult to take, personally, but also as a team,” admitted Dessers. “I think first half was good. We had control without being top.

“I think with the ball possession we had, we need to create more big open chances. But it was decent.

“Then I want to build on that second half because you know they’re going to maybe get a little bit more tired, fatigued.

“And then, I think in the first 50 minutes, after half time, we make it very difficult for ourselves..

“After that, I think we had a good reaction. We kept going, kept believing. You come very close, but obviously, that’s not enough.

“I don’t think it’s something that we want, like that.

“Then they make it difficult for us, but I think we need to be more aggressive.

“If you can do it in the last 30 minutes, with one man down, then you should be able to do it as well in 11 v 11 in the first half.

“And it’s just like, if talking about percentage, I think it’s only about like five or six or seven percent, like just a little bit more aggressive, a little bit more at it, a little bit more like sometimes just having the courage to play the difficult ball instead of the same ball again.

“I think it’s just about that. And yeah, at the end, we did it with 10.

“So it is in the team, it is in us, but yeah, I repeat,myself and the things that have been said here, we have to be more consistent in this and do it from the beginning of the game.”

This isn’t a new scenario for Dessers. The former Feyenoord frontman has found himself facing tough, probing questions early on in both of his two previous campaigns in Glasgow.

(Image: PA)

Finding the right answer isn’t getting any easier. But Dessers reckons it starts with being braver on the ball.

“I think you have to flip a switch in that, and sometimes it’s not, forcing is maybe the wrong word, but I think sometimes you have to try.

“At this club, you need to win games and to win games, you need to score goals, and sometimes it takes a risky pass to open it up, or maybe even to scare the opponent.

“So next time they don’t step through on a midfielder and they stay in position and maybe then you open up the space a little bit more there.

“I think it’s a little bit of belief, confidence.

“Like you say, there’s no time at this club. Not a lot of patience, which everybody knows when they play here and that’s okay, that’s fine, we’re fine with that.

“But somewhere inside yourself, you need to find that confidence and the courage to go out there and do that, make the pass, make the dribble, try the shot, and just to create something for the team.

“I think we’ve shown [courage] at certain moments and then people talk really quick about the European games or the Old Firm last season. But I think we also showed it in the league. But like I said, it’s the consistency.

“Like, can you do it on a Tuesday and do it again on Saturday and do it again on Tuesday? For me, that’s the thing, that’s the next step for us.”