Philippe Clement swerves Celtic gap question as Rangers boss hails ‘great mentality’ of players in Hearts win

Philippe Clement praised the “great mentality” of his Rangers side for staging a stunning comeback win over Hearts - but insists he’s “not busy” thinking about the points gap deficit to Scottish Premiership leaders Celtic.

The Ibrox club closed the gap on Brendan Rodgers’ Hoops to five points after late drama saw James Tavernier’s spot-kick and sub Danilo’s injury-time header cancel out Lawrence Shankland’s early opener in Govan.

The Belgian boss wants his Light Blues squad to continue their league revival but he refused to get dragged into talk surrounding the title race after maintaining his unbeaten start to his Gers tenure.

Celtic slipped to a goalless draw against Hibernian at Easter Road on Saturday, and Clement admits he isn’t concerning himself about their arch rivals form. He reckons his players’ never-say-die attitude will lead to silverware in the future.

Speaking to BBC Sportsound post-match, a relieved Clement said: “The most important thing is it was a deserved win. If you see the game, you see the statistics in every sense. I think we had 70 per cent possession, shots, missing a penalty… and conceding the only chance for the opponent in the beginning of the game.

“For me this is a great mentality, not giving up, and I spoke about that before the game. I’m still in an observational period, looking at the players, how they react as individuals and as a team. I expect them in every circumstance never to give up and always to fight, to repeat and go on and do the things we are doing together. Keep our moments, keep our ball tempo, and that is what they did today.

“The circumstances were against us but because of the mentality of the players, we ended up in this situation. The good teams are the teams that never give up. There is no team in the world, not even the best, that win every game. It’s not just about that but the teams who repeat that, who continue to never give up, are the ones to win trophies at the end.

“That’s our ambition, it’s what we want to do, so this is a good reference game for the next weeks and months to keep this mentality. All of the players who came in gave something extra for the team and that will be crucial in the next couple of weeks with so many games.”

He continued: “I’m not busy with that (title race) for the moment. I’m busy game after game, going fully for the three points and then we will get to the end of the season and see what the situation is. We are focused on ourselves, making our story better for every player, individual and for the collective for all of the club. All things on the players, we are busy with that.

“There are still a lot of things that need improving, but those are things I will only talk about in my dressing room. I’ve seen a lot of positive things this week clearly, with two wins (vs Hibs and Hearts) with a good result in Europe too and we need to continue in that way, but making a lot of details so much better.”