FORMER Saints defender Graeme Murty is calling for a stark improvement from his Glasgow Rangers players after his first match in charge.

Murty was handed the reins less than 48 hours before Sunday's William Hill Scottish Cup visit of Morton and led the team to a 2-1 fifth-round victory.

The former Scotland international has thanked his players for their co-operation following Mark Warburton's shock departure.

But the Rangers Under-20s coach has left them in no doubt that he wants a major improvement in performance for Sunday's Premiership encounter with Dundee at Dens Park.

Murty said: "I was pleased with their attitude, I was pleased with the way they handled themselves because it is not easy and your head is all over the place.

"It is difficult to try and please a new manager, even though consciously you're not doing it you're just playing the game, but subconsciously you are always looking at: 'What does he want? What is he after?'

"But I thought they got past that bit and got past a really challenging start when we conceded the goal and I have just shown them in analysis that there were some really good bits of play, we just didn't sustain it.

"The difference between our good bits and where we want to improve are a bit stark at the moment."

The 42-year-old added: "We have talked about portioning those things up and I have come away from the analysis with a really positive outlook on it and I hope they have as well.

"I want to thank them because it has made my transition a bit easier, it could have been really awkward but they made sure it wasn't."

Murty's coaching career started with the Saints academy after he was forced to retire from playing due to injuries suffered in his short playing time at St Mary's.

Signed on a free by his former Reading boss Alan Pardew in the summer of 2009, Murty played the first four games of the new season before picking up a knee injury in a League Cup loss to Birmingham.

On returning to action in November 2009, he played only five more matches before suffering an even worse injury in training.

"'I blocked a shot from David Connolly and my left foot landed on the ball," Murty has since recalled.

"My ankle twisted and I fell and landed in an extreme position. All my body weight went through my ankle and everything went.'

Murty had dislocated his ankle and ruptured two ligaments. He underwent two operations, had tendon taken from the back of his knee to create new 'ligaments' and had nerve tissue removed to relieve the pain.

"I spent 18 months learning how to walk again.

"I spent a lot of time on crutches so I had to sort out the kinks that that put in my body where I'd lift my hip up and not use my ankle properly while my knees and hamstrings weren't firing properly.

"It was about re-educating my body to work and it took a long time."

Murty took up a coaching role in the Saints academy in 2012 and stayed there until moving to Norwich in 2014.

He moved onto Glasgow Rangers last summer, taking over as the club's main development coach.