PHILIPPE Clement praised the fighting spirit of his Rangers team this afternoon in a 3-1 victory over Dundee in the Scottish Premiership.
Going behind early in the match, the Light Blues responded well with goals from James Tavernier, Cyriel Dessers and Abdallah Sima before a Jose Cifuentes red card saw Gers navigate the second-half with 10-men.
The manager was happy with what he saw from his squad and says the battling performance has to be a reference point moving forward.
Speaking to RangersTV at full-time he said: “The supporters can see what they want to see, and that is a team that fights hard, makes mistakes but we keep battling together and that is really important.
“The team has made a big step forward if I compare with two or three months ago, it is a total difference in that way and it is for me the reference it needs to stay like that all season. I demand that everybody fights really hard for each other in whatever position they have to play, which they did today, and we get a deserved victory.
“It is difficult to win a game when you have to play 45 minutes with 10 players but even in the second-half, we were the team with the best chances.
“I was not happy with the goal we lost, of course, but I was with the reaction after. We didn't start to doubt, we didn't put our heads down and stop believing they kept on going and got three really good goals. To be honest we got four really good goals, but one was disallowed. I still don't know why, so that was a strange thing.
“Then we get a red card and then you know it is a struggle, you need to survive, you need good mentality, hard work and that is what the players did. We had good organisation, good transitions, and we had the best chances in the second half.”
Clement made two changes at half-time with Ross McCausland and Dujon Sterling introduced for the second period. Following the sending off, Sterling took up position in midfield alongside John Lundstram and the manager was happy with his contribution.
He continued: “He played a really good game in a position that he never plays but I see what I see in training. He is working hard, he wants to play minutes in whatever position.
“He was important at Hearts to play at left full-back and now in the midfield, he can play right full-back, he can for me also play as a winger so if he keeps on pushing like that, he will get more minutes in the next couple of weeks that is clear because he deserves it.”
With a huge Europa League tie against Real Betis on Thursday evening, and the Viaplay Cup final at Hampden next Sunday it is another big week ahead for the squad.
Clement says the togetherness he saw today is crucial for success moving forward. He continued: “It doesn't give guarantees of course but if we continue what we have been doing in the last couple of weeks success will come.
“Short-term and long-term we are going to push really hard for success, but football is always a game where you need this factor or luck whether it falls on your side or not. It is also sometimes a part in decisive games, so you never have guarantees but you see this team is understanding what they have to do on the field together in their resilience, in the way they help each other on the pitch all the time and like this in the long-term it is always guaranteed for success.”