PHILIPPE CLEMENT praised the mentality of his squad as two late goals secured a 2-1 victory over Hearts in the Scottish Premiership this afternoon.
The manager says he saw fight and hard work from the squad as a 90th minute James Tavernier penalty and a 93rd minute Danilo header turned things around at Ibrox.
Speaking to RangersTV at full-time, he said: “I saw the mentality that I wanted to see and what we talked about. In the tough moments when things don't go our way we need to never stop, to always repeat, fight, work and continue until we die.
“Not only with eleven players but also the players who came off the bench to give the team energy, to give them something extra so it is a really important evening.
“It is a reference game, this is the mentality I want to see all season. If we do that then we can have an amazing season and then the players will win the confidence of the fans in the difficult moments and then we are even stronger.
“They can use this as a reference in the future when the difficult moments come to speak with each other on the pitch and say that they did it against Hearts so they can do it against every team in the league. That is why we need to use it as a reference game because it is inside the players, they showed it today, it is about showing it every time.”
Looking back on the 90 minutes, Clement believes it is a big step forward for the squad as they made it two wins from two in the Scottish Premiership under the Belgian.
He continued: “It is a game you always need to win, data is not always important but at this moment it is really clear if you have almost 70 per cent ball possession, you have 28 shots, you have five big chances and you miss a penalty.
“You get a goal against in the first action of the opponent. It is a scenario that is really negative in that way, and it is really difficult to get a result, but we kept on going.
“We repeated our actions, we didn't lose our belief, we went all for it and the players got what they deserved today. It is a win, but it is only possible if everybody on the pitch goes hard every time and doesn't lose confidence, so it is a very important step forward.