Philippe Clement happy to see Rangers grind out victory

Philippe Clement admitted Rangers’ performance in their 2-1 win at St Mirren was far from “sexy” but insisted winning was all that mattered.

The Ibrox side arrived at the SMiSA Stadium without a cinch Premiership victory in three matches but took the lead in the 33rd minute when Saints defender James Bolton put the ball into his own net.

Home striker Mikael Mandron deservedly levelled with a well-placed header four minutes later, but in the 74th minute striker Cyriel Dessers headed in a terrific cross from skipper James Tavernier for his 20th Rangers goal of the season and three crucial points.

Clement said: “They did what they need to do and that is winning games. That is the first thing.

“Was it our most sexy game? No. But it is also the circumstances and all respect to St Mirren also.

“They are aggressive, they are powerful in the duels, the pitch is also smaller and that creates more duels.

“We had to dig in, we knew that from before, but the team did. We get the result. I don’t think, if you don’t lead with 2-0 or 3-0, that any team will have an easy game here.

“That is because of the quality and mentality of St Mirren, of their players and their manager. It is about taking the three points and with a very good second goal also.

“In the end it is important to take the three points to go home and to know that you have four finals to go in the league and it will be game by game, going full to get the three points.

“Football is about the results in the end. Nobody remembers that we won 4-0 against Hibs in October with really good football or other games.

“At the end it is about the points. We had a lot of good games like that, but you need in a season games that you win with resilience or mentality or digging in together and fighting.

“There is not one team in the world who only win games in a very beautiful way, like the team did already several times. For sure, not teams who win trophies.

“You need both and they showed the right mentality today. Now it is getting good recovery and working towards next weekend to go full for the three points again.”

Saints boss Stephen Robinson was left wishing his side were taking points rather than plaudits from games against the Old Firm.

The Northern Irishman, whose side lost 3-0 to Brendan Rodgers’ Celtic in their previous outing, said: “We have had a lot of ‘well dones’ from top-class managers this season and Philippe was very complimentary about how good we are and the style of football we play.

“Brendan was the same in the last game, but ultimately we came out of both games with no points.

“We created enough chances to win the game, never mind draw.

“Their goalkeeper made some terrific saves, but the two goals were very much avoidable, two poor goals to concede.

“One was a lack of communication which we crave from the boys because society doesn’t speak a lot to itself, we didn’t get that and we got punished, and the second one, if we defended that 100 times with one versus three in the box, we would win it.

“The goals are a frustration and we demand better from that. “All the ‘well dones’ in the world don’t get you points unfortunately.”