Never mind Celtic, the Rangers fans would expect their team to beat Barcelona if they were playing them tomorrow, claims Mark Warburton

Few people can truly relate to the position Russell Martin finds himself in at this moment in time, but Mark Warburton is certainly one of them.

Warburton spent nearly two years in charge at Rangers, winning promotion from the Scottish Championship and lifting the Scottish Challenge Cup during his time at Ibrox.

He also knows what it is like to win an Old Firm derby, something which would be monumental for Martin given the current state of affairs.

Martin has endured a nightmare start to his reign at the club, drawing each of his first three league games in charge which has seen the team slip six points behind rivals Celtic already going into Sunday’s game.

They were also thumped 9-1 on aggregate by Belgian side Club Brugge in their Champions League qualifier, heaping further pressure on the manager.

Prominent fan group the Rangers Supporters’ Association have already called on the club to replace Martin as head coach, and while Warburton can sympathise with the former Southampton boss given how little time he has had, he says the pressure he is under should not come as a surprise to him.

‘He’s just been there for two minutes so, in terms of does he deserve time, he’s hardly put his foot through the door,’ Warburton said.

‘But he, having been there for a brief period as a player, will know the expectation.

‘Russell will know that to drop points, and to see Celtic, their arch-rivals, ahead already, he’ll know the pressure’s on, because that’s Rangers.

‘That’s not new. He’s been there two minutes, but you don’t get a lot of time at Rangers. You have to win.’

After a fine first season in charge at Rangers, the pressure quickly grew on Warburton once they were promoted to the Premiership, with his side finding themselves a long way behind Celtic, and having also been beaten by their Old Firm rivals.

The former QPR, Brentford and Nottingham Forest boss, who now works as sporting director and head of soccer at USA side Sporting Club Jacksonville, is no stranger to pressure. He worked as a city trader managing huge sums of money before making his way into football management, but says managing Rangers is unlike anything else he has experienced.

‘It is quite unlike anything else I’ve known, and people outside of Glasgow, outside of Scotland, will not recognise that,’ he said.

‘I’ve had, in past interviews, people say, oh, they’re nowhere near Premier League clubs now.

‘They haven’t got the Premier League money but, if you put Rangers or Celtic, one of those two clubs, into the Premier League, or maybe you put them in the Championship, and they had the money available there, honestly, the fan base and what they would do, they would fill every away stadium. That’s the size of these clubs.

‘They haven’t got the financial support that the Premier League and Championship clubs have got, but there’s no doubt about the expectation from the fan base. As David Weir said to me, if Rangers play Barcelona tomorrow at Ibrox, Rangers fans expect to win.

‘That’s just how it is. If you’re nil-nil at half-time, you get booed off the pitch.’

Asked about the challenges of shutting out the external pressure and noise from fans and media in order to concentrate on the job at hand, Warburton admits it is not something that comes easily.

‘It is (difficult), but you’re playing in front of 50,000 at a top football stadium,’ he said. ‘That’s what you do.

‘You go to Ibrox with the Ibrox roar and the Battle Fever and everything else that goes on. The fans are so passionate. They just live and breathe football, and there’s a difference. Honestly, there is a real difference, and, you know, you come outside of it (the job), and you go, what was that all about?

‘Literally, you’re in a goldfish bowl in Glasgow, but it’s intense. The media, the radio, everything is geared toward football. So it’s a magnificent football city, and the Rangers fans are outstanding.

‘But, as I say, you’ve just got to deal with it because you’re a Rangers manager. So you’ve just got to win games of football. They demand you win.

‘They demand you win with a style. So you’ve got to go and deliver on both fronts. And at the same time, you’ve got to have players who recognise it and have to play with the passion and intensity that the fans demand.

‘Because if you think back to the history and the shipyards and the workers, they’re hard men. You think of players like John Greig, these type of players, legendary players, these are hard men. Jock Wallace, etc.

‘So, you know, you need to deliver on all fronts. It’s not enough to go out there and scrape a 1-0 win. You need more than that to satisfy the Rangers fans.

‘Russell will know that. He’s very experienced and I’m sure that, hopefully, he’ll relish the challenge.’

Martin perhaps finds himself under even greater pressure than Warburton experienced, given how the former Norwich City defender has fared in his short spell in charge so far. Plus the fact that Warburton had previous success to point to when times did get tougher.

The current Rangers boss has no such luxury, but winning his first Old Firm derby would certainly be a start to repairing at least one problem.

Warburton knows better than most just how much pressure the Old Firm derby brings, but also just how significant it can be if you do manage to come away with a victory.

‘You literally have to win,’ he said. ‘You need to beat your Old Firm rival.’