Steven Whittaker hailed Rangers' character after they came through one of their biggest challenges of the season to restore their found-point lead at the top of the Clydesdale Bank Premier League.

Walter Smith's men found themselves in the unusual position of trailing at Ibrox when Steve Lovell grabbed the opening goal for Aberdeen on Saturday.

With Celtic keeping the pressure on with a 2-0 win over Hibernian earlier in the day, Rangers were forced to rise to the challenge and hit back through goals from Christian Dailly, Charlie Adam and Kris Boyd.

Whittaker knows the visit of the Dons represented a massive test - and insists Rangers passed with flying colours.

He said: "The team showed a lot of character to come back from a goal down and that should stand us in good stead in the future now that we know we can come back from a goal behind.

"If it happens again, we just have to remember that we came back before.

"It was good determination from us.

"I feel that we started the game well and we looked comfortable for the first 20 minutes. Then we took our foot off the gas.

"Aberdeen are a good outfit and showed they are capable of hitting us on the break. I was pleased to go into the break at 1-1 and we showed our class in the second half."

Whittaker was particularly pleased to see Adam on the scoresheet after he was singled out for criticism by supporters recently.

He said: "He set up two goals against Hearts and scored a very important goal for us against Aberdeen.

"He's a big lad and he can take it. He has shown that he can come back from taking a bit of stick from the supporters."

Rangers now prepare for Thursday's visit of Werder Bremen in the last 16 of the UEFA Cup, and Whittaker sees no reason why they cannot keep their European run going beyond this round.

He said: "Werder Bremen have been a good side in Europe for a while.

"I don't know how they are doing in the Bundesliga but I'm sure they are up there and quite a solid side.

"We are expecting a difficult game. Hopefully at Ibrox with the crowd behind us we can give it our best shot.

"We have already beaten Stuttgart, who are the German champions, at Ibrox.

"We are more than capable of going over there and scoring away from home and away goals count for a lot in this competition. Hopefully we can keep Bremen out at Ibrox and get a goal over there."

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