Giovanni van Bronckhorst admits his Rangers side were affected by three successive defeats beforehand as they struggled to a 2-1 win over Dundee United at Ibrox.
The Light Blues had lost to Napoli, Ajax and Celtic, conceding 11 goals without reply, as they went into the Premiership game against the Tangerines. The pressure was on against the league's bottom side but the Gers got off to a great start when returning striker Antonio Colak - dropped for the Champions League showdown midweek - opened the scoring with a drive after eight minutes.
However, indecision ran through a laboured Rangers side at times after that and although the Croatia striker, celebrating his 29th birthday, added a second soon after the break, United defender Liam Smith pulled a goal back to ensure a fraught last 30 minutes. The Dutchman admitted that 'the most important thing today was the win' but also acknowledged a difficult period for the club.
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He said: "We started the game really well and like so many times at home, we could have scored two or three times in the first 15 minutes.
"In the second half we scored the second goal quite early but after we conceded the first goal, maybe in the players' minds, it was 'What if? What if?'.
"It affected the game as well, although we had chances to kill the game off to make it 3-1. We had good chances and they didn't take them.
"Mentally it is quite difficult when you have three defeats in a row, it can affect you. I think at moments in the game today it affected us.
"In moments of stress, it is difficult to keep focusing on your task and on your play. I think in moments of the game you can see we did not do that well.
"The game should have been decided early and that is one thing we have to do better compared to last season.
"Last season we played many of these games and eventually conceded a late goal and dropped points again, so today I was happy that we took the three points."
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