Philippe Clement makes Rangers 'not sexy' admission as Cyriel Dessers praised for changing fans' tune

What the managers said after Rangers’ 2-1 win over St Mirren in Paisley

Philippe Clement admitted it was far from sexy football but felt Rangers winning was all that mattered on a tricky afternoon against St Mirren in Paisley.

Cyriel Dessers’ header proved to be the difference after Mika Mandron had cancelled out an own goal by team-mate James Bolton to leave the sides level heading into the final chunk of the contest.

The margin of victory could have been greater had Alex Gogic not made an astonishing goal line block to deny Tom Lawrence a third goal late in the game, although Clement conceded that goalkeeper Jack Butland had also earned his corn with a number of key saves in the first half especially.

Rangers manager Philippe Clement with Cyriel Dessers after the 2-1 win over St Mirren. (Photo by Alan Harvey / SNS Group)

After their recent stutters away to Ross County and Dundee, Rangers couldn’t afford another misstep and duly did enough to keep alive their championship chances with four games to play.

“They did what they needed to do and that is winning games,” said Clement of his players. “Was it our most sexy game? No. But it is also the circumstances and all respect to St Mirren also. We had to dig in, we knew that from before but the team did it.

“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 wins games in a very beautiful way, like the team has already done several times. For sure, not teams who win trophies.”

Dessers’ goal was his 20th for Rangers this season and there was praise from his manager both for that haul but also the Nigerian international’s all-round play.

“It is not only the goals,” added Clement. “It is also the work he is doing without the ball, also his work as high support. He is working really hard for the team, he is giving everything. He changed the situation himself in a really good way.

“If I hear what the fans are singing now or six months ago, there are different songs. But he deserves it because he has been working really hard to help the team, not only thinking about himself but to help the team.

“Then the moments come and the situations come to be decisive in that position. It was again a really good finish today and a good cross by Tav (James Tavernier) also.”

St Mirren have yet to take a point from either Celtic or Rangers this season, leaving manager Stephen Robinson with mixed emotions after another strong performance failed to yield anything tangible.

“Ultimately, I’ve had a lot of ‘well-dones’ this season from top class managers,” he said. “Philippe was very complimentary about how good we are, the style of play we have, and Brendan [Rodgers] was the same a couple of weeks ago, but ultimately we’ve come out with no points from both games.

“We created enough chances today to win the game, never mind draw it. We’ve had so many plaudits for performances, but we have to turn them into results. We have to take our chances and I’ll demand that.”