Steven Gerrard praises Rangers’ ‘dirty’ side after matching clean sheet record

Fifth consecutive shut-out equals 1929-30 milestone

Rangers Ryan Kent celebrates with Steven Davis after scoring to make it 2-0 during the Scottish Premiership match between Rangers and Kilmarnock at Ibrox Stadium, on August 22, 2020, in Glasgow, Scotland. (Photo by Rob Casey / SNS Group)

Rangers manager Steven Gerrard has credited his players’ willingness to do “the dirty stuff” as critical to his team matching a club all-time clean sheets record courtesy of their 2-0 success over Kilmarnock.

A fifth consecutive shut-out since the start of the Premiership campaign equals the run achieved by the Ibrox men at the start of the 1929-30 league season. And it means that next Saturday evening’s game at Hamilton will provide Gerrard’s men the chance to become the first ever Rangers side to avoid conceding a goal across their first six league fixtures.

“I’m very pleased with the clean sheet and the players deserve a lot of credit for the record,” said the Ibrox manager. “We have been working very hard on the training pitch and we are defending well. We are doing the dirty stuff behind the ball really well. The players have applied themselves ever so well and they are getting their rewards for it.”

Rugby Park counterpart Alex Dyer believes that with only two points from their first five games, Kilmarnock have not derived the returns they have merited from the opening span of games. “We would like more points on the board,” he said. “But the performances have been decent and we need to turn them into results.”

Dyer confirmed that Youssouf Mulumbu will be training with the club this week as they ponder offering the midfielder a short-term deal.