Rangers manager Derek McInnes has had his touchline ban reduced to two matches, with two suspended, following an appeal by the Ibrox club.

McInnes was initially handed a four-game ban, with three of them to be served immediately, for comments he made while he was in charge of Hearts last season.

But Rangers' appeal against that decision has been heard and the outcome is that he will miss only their next two games, away to Falkirk tomorrow and at home to Motherwell on Saturday.

The remaining two matches of his punishment will be triggered if he commits another breach of disciplinary rule 72 before the end of the campaign.

The case came after last season's controversial title run-in, when McInnes described a penalty awarded to Celtic against Motherwell as 'disgusting'.

He will watch Rangers' next two games from the stands before returning to the dugout a week tomorrow, when St Mirren are the visitors to Ibrox.

By then, he will hope that Rangers have built on their 1-0 victory against Aberdeen on Sunday, which gave them much-needed relief after a torrid start to the season.

Midfielder Dan Neil has revealed that some no-holds-barred talks helped Rangers get back on track with that hard-fought win at Pittodrie.

The squad and their manager were under mounting pressure after being knocked out of the Europa Conference League play-off by Czech side Jablonec in a penalty shoot-out.

Not only did it mean that there would be no European football for Rangers this season, it left McInnes with just two wins from seven since taking over as manager in the summer.

Flying direct from the Czech Republic to Aberdeen allowed his squad time together to have some deep dialogue about their poor start to the campaign.

While there was no huge improvement against Aberdeen, a Lawrence Shankland penalty after the break clinched Rangers' first Premiership win of the season.

Neil, who signed from Sunderland on a three-year contract in July, said: 'We spent time in Aberdeen as a team, in the hotel together, for a few days.

'It wasn't a case of lads just going to their rooms on their iPads and nobody speaking.

'There were a lot of conversations, mostly about Thursday and the last few weeks, really, and about how important the game was on Sunday.

'No matter what we did, we had to come away with three points. I think you've seen the connections that we've built over the last few days out on the pitch.

'During a season, you're going to have ups and downs. The biggest thing is ironing them out really quickly.

'The few days we managed to have together in Aberdeen, as a whole, not just the squad but all the staff and backroom staff, spending every hour with each other really, and having conversations about what we think we can improve on and what we're doing well, have been really positive for the group.

'To top it off with three points at a tough place to come is really important.'

Neil insists everyone has a say in McInnes's group, as they try to find their feet amid a rebuilding job that has so far facilitated 12 new signings this summer.

'Everybody in the squad has got a voice,' he said. 'We ask everybody's opinion and we respect everyone's opinion.

'We try to speak as a team to iron out the things that maybe aren't going right at the minute.

'Obviously, I'm not going to go into what was said, but I think you've seen that all the lads are together and willing to fight for each other.

'I also understand that not every game is going to be like that and not every game is going to be pretty.

'In an ideal world, everybody wants to play nice football, play through the thirds and break teams down.

'But I think over the last few weeks the group has probably lacked a bit of confidence with the results that we've had, which is only natural when the results haven't been going our way.

'So, it was important to stand up, fight and win duels.'