Rangers midfielder Ross McCrorie said the Light Blues will receive a "huge" psychological boost if they end the year top of the Premiership.

Steven Gerrard's side returned to the summit on Sunday by beating Hamilton 1-0 hours after champions Celtic lost to Hibs at Easter Road.

After previously spurning their advantage McCrorie insisted nobody at Ibrox is getting ahead of themselves with four testing fixtures to come over the festive period.

However, the 20-year-old said should Rangers still lead the way when the New Year bells ring it would be the perfect stimulus for the club going into the second half of the campaign.

"We're not going to get carried away," he said.

"We were top the other week then went through a sticky patch but that's the aim.

"It would be huge for us, we want to finish the year on a high so that would be the best possible outcome for us.

"This is massive for us. If we can be more consistent hopefully we'll still be top at the end of the year."

McCrorie started for the Light Blues for the first time since September in the Europa League loss to Rapid Vienna.

Despite the defeat, the 20-year-old's energetic showing was enough for Gerrard to retain faith in him for Sunday's Premiership win over Hamilton.

After back-to-back starts, McCrorie vowed to not give up his jersey without a fight.

He added: "It's been up-and-down but recently I've been in the team and I hope it continues.

"The manager has been great with me, he knows I'm young and is protecting me.

"He's developing the way he wants me to be, whatever he says, I'm fine with that.

"The gaffer was one of the best players of his generation so I can take whatever little bits of information he feeds down to me it can only improve my game.

"I think I have a sound mentality, I'm always going in every day to work as hard as I can.

"It's up to me to make the decision hard for the gaffer to leave me out."