Rangers boss Russell Martin lifts lid on Andrew Cavenagh meeting and makes title challenge pledge

Rangers supporters again chanted for the besieged head coach to be sacked following the 1-0 loss to the Belgian side in their Europa League opener at Ibrox on Thursday. The former Southampton boss has won just four of his 14 matches in charge since his summer appointment and has overseen the club's worst start to a Scottish top flight campaign since 1978.

Martin now takes his 11th-placed side to Livingston on Sunday looking to pick up a first victory of the Premiership campaign at the sixth attempt after four consecutive draws were followed by a home defeat to Hearts.

"The media love making it out as if every one is a big conversation about is he going, is he staying, what's being said," Martin told Sky Sports. "But generally we chat about the football club, about what we can improve, about the performance, about the next game. It's always the same.

"It's never just me and Andrew. It's me and my staff, Kevin [Thelwell], Patrick [Stewart], all the guys in there. We have good conversation, honest conversation and it was the same again. There's nothing out of the ordinary with that.

"Whilst everyone is probably feeling a bit frustrated and all that stuff, I think there's an acceptance that as people that have run football clubs and sports teams for a very long time, that sometimes things can take a bit of time to change and to get to where you want to get to.

"It's not always going to happen overnight. But we're all frustrated. Everyone's feeling it. Whilst the fans are feeling it, we're inside the building, we're feeling it more than anyone.

"Everyone's been really together, really stuck together through this period. And like I said, if we can get through that period, which I really believe we will, we'll be so much better for it."

Rangers fans protested outside Ibrox before last weekend's Premier Sports Cup quarter-final win over Hibs, calling for both Martin and chief executive Patrick Stewart to be sacked.

‘Brutal industry’

"If you're a football manager now, your job's under threat wherever you work, all the time. Such is the world and such is the industry, it's brutal," Martin said. "Genuinely, if we were doing brilliantly, I wouldn't listen to the outside noise. If we're doing not very well, I don't listen to it because I think you can get caught up in all of it. I would always treat it the same.

"If people are praising you and liking what you do from the outside, when people don't see it, it's really difficult.

"So as long as I feel in here, the staff, the players, the supporting team around all of it, as long as I feel they're here, they're with us, we're together, which I really feel, then I'll be happy and I'll really trust that we have a good process and good people, the outcome will follow."

Despite the difficult start to his tenure, Martin remains confident that he can turn things around and challenge for the title this season.

"We want to be at the top of the table at the end of the season. If you leave it too much longer, you'll start running out of games," the former Scotland defender stressed. "We have time, it's really early on in the season, we have time to build and win and claw our way back. We have to be really hungry and start hunting the top and really start making the points difference up. It has to start and it has to start on Sunday."