Jack Butland says Rangers cannot afford to be distracted by Hearts v Celtic game

Jack Butland insists Rangers’ focus must not stray from Ibrox on Sunday when the Premiership title race is guaranteed to take a twist.

The Light Blues, fresh from a 1-0 Europa League win over Bulgarian side Ludogorets on Thursday to make it seven wins in a row in all competitions, are behind second placed Celtic on goal difference and six points adrift of leaders Hearts.

Rangers host Dundee while Celtic travel to Tynecastle where something has to give.

But the Gers goalkeeper, who admits there is “still room for improvement” at the Govan outfit, believes the Taysiders must be given 100 per cent attention.

Butland said: “There’s a lot of football left to be played.

“Obviously, for us, we need to just take care of what we’ve got in front of us.

“Elsewhere will take care of itself one way or another.

“But we need to focus on what we’re doing, and that’s back here again in a couple of days.

“Just that focus on ourselves.

“We’ve been through a lot, come through a lot and we’ve done that by just working on what we’ve needed to work on and focus on us.

“That’s how that will continue, hopefully with a win on the weekend against Dundee.

“Then we kick on again to Porto and Hibs and beyond.”

It was a fourth clean sheet in a row for Rangers and Butland believes that attention to defensive matters is key to success.

He said: “When there’s games where we’re perhaps not as clinical, keeping the ball out of the net is going to help us a lot. So hopefully we can keep that up.

“We’ve had a really good defensive record of late, and let’s keep it going.”