Kenny Dalglish: Improving Rangers are a boost to all Scottish clubs

THE performance by Rangers in last weekend’s Old Firm game will have given the Ibrox club plenty of encouragement.

It should do them the world of good, and they will look to build on it when the domestic game resumes later this month after the winter break.

Rangers had chances to win, and Graeme Murty and his players probably left Parkhead disappointed they weren’t more clinical in front of goal to earn three points instead of one in the 0-0 draw.

Had they won the game there could have been few arguments.

Even so, it was still a good result for Rangers and, in many ways, a good result for Scottish football as it offers other clubs encouragement.

That said, Celtic also created chances and should have scored twice, at least.

There is no doubt Brendan Rodgers still has the strongest squad and they are the team to beat. That may well be the case for the foreseeable future.

However, Rangers, Aberdeen and a couple of other clubs need to keep showing progress.

They need to increase their standards and levels of consistency in order to give the Champions a run for their money.

It’s not up to Celtic to drop a level or two in order for the competition to become closer.

But the more competitive the games there are in the Premiership, the better. It’s good for the game in Scotland and it attracts interest from beyond our own country.

That can be advantageous in different ways, such as attracting more lucrative sponsorship and commercial packages.

The greater the income is to the governing bodies and our clubs, then the better chance there is of enhancing the product on the park.

It’s likely Celtic will add a player or two to their squad in this window because they will be keen to strengthen. No club wants to stand still.

They have signed young Lewis Morgan from St Mirren, and Rangers hope to add Jamie Murphy to their squad very shortly.

Morgan is still developing – but Light Blues boss Murty will want to see Murphy hit the ground running.