DEREK McINNES claimed Dundee’s equaliser felt like a balloon popping for his Rangers side as they threw away two points from a winning position at Dens Park.

Behind through Bradley Fink’s opener, the Ibrox men turned the game on its head with two wonder goals from Badredine Bouanani and Nico Raskin arriving either side of the break.

Seemingly coasting towards the seventh straight league win which would have taken them top of the table, Dan Neil’s stumble allowed Callum Jones to claim a deserved point for the Dark Blues.

Clearly frustrated that a much-improved second half display didn’t seal another three points, McInnes reflected: ‘I think it’s two parts. I think the first half, Dundee maybe shaded it. Certainly they were a handful.

‘We spoke ahead of the game with the players about we needed to defend. Defenders needed to be good defenders. We knew Dundee would mix the game up, they would come after us on full press.

‘We also knew that we had to use the ball and move the ball quicker.

‘Their front two (Fink and Ash Hay) were a handful, they will be for any back four this season. We never quite got to grips with them in the first half.

‘But we scored a brilliant goal from Bouanani, which justifies the selection for me.

‘We defended with a lot more purpose. The performance for 20-25 minutes culminated in Nico’s goal.

‘It should be a winning goal, because it was such a high-quality goal. The disappointment is that we had the game there, we were dominant. We had the game by the scruff of the neck.

‘Dundee were struggling to get out of their own half. We were in such a good place. It was almost like a balloon popping when we made a mistake, which can happen.’

Neil’s error came after Dujon Sterling’s mistake allowed Fink to give Dundee the lead.

‘The first goal is avoidable,’ McInnes stated.

‘I just thought we were a bit sleepy and a bit not ready to deal with it.

‘And then the second goal is a mistake. Listen, I’m not going to criticise any of my players for it, but it is a mistake and it was difficult to say anything other than that because we were so good in the game.’

Rangers lost their impetus once Dundee levelled, though, with McInnes believing his players had to respond in a more productive manner to the set-back.

‘We never really got back to that same level,’ he continued.

‘Although we did have enough balls in their box to score. We should be scoring.

‘I think what it does do, it kills your momentum, first of all, because football’s not just a physical game, but mentally.

‘It also gives Dundee something to hang on to. All of a sudden Dundee are thinking, we might just get something here. But we still worked the ball into good enough areas.

‘We still have two wide players and two strikers. We still got enough balls in the box. We still had opportunities. We still made them defend.

‘So. although we didn’t quite get to the same sort of level, I still thought we were the dominant team and we were the team that looked more likely to win it.’

Dundee boss Steven Pressley felt his players were well worth the point that maintains their outstanding start to the season.

'To use an old cliche, it was a game of two halves,’ he said.

'I thought our first half performance was a really outstanding and very dominant performance.

'We restricted Rangers to very few chances and we created a number of chances and chances that we felt we could have capitalised on more.

'We were really strong in the duels and the second balls, the aspects of the game that I spoke about prior to the game.

'But the pleasing thing as well is when we got on to those second balls, we were courageous in our play and we really tried to play.

'So, I couldn’t have been prouder of the group.

'But the one thing we did expect was a reaction from Rangers.

'We had to ride our luck at times. Against the Old Firm, you have to dig in and suffer a bit.

'We did all of those things and then we still came back for more.

'So really, really proud of the group.

'Some really great things to take from it and a little bit of perspective. We’re the first club to take a point off Rangers in eight games, so our players should be really proud of their achievements tonight.'