Philippe Clement insists he was not feeling the pressure as he watched his under-fire Rangers side bounce back from their Scottish Cup shocker to sink Hearts.
The beleaguered Belgian has been left clinging to his job since last week’s disastrous exit at the hands of Queen’s Park. But his team spared themselves another furious backlash at Tynecastle as they returned to winning ways with a hard-fought win over Neil Critchley’s Jambos.
Two Jamie McCart OG’s either side of a Vaclav Cerny goal did the job as Rangers’ relieved players were finally able to take a breath after a painful week. And Clement said: “Did I feel extra pressure? No, I just want to win all the games. So I put this pressure on myself and the people around me, also to get that mentality.
“I was devastated after that game, that cup game. Like I said in the press conference, I wanted to kick the ball myself over the line in that moment, because that would have made a hell of a difference. And with that result, we would have been consistent in 2025 in this series of games. Now it’s not, so it’s starting a new series and putting all the focus in it.
“I’m focused on the team all the time. I understand the disappointment. I don’t think anybody was more disappointed than me after this cup game. I understand that. But I know what everybody’s doing in the club to make things better and to make Rangers better for the future. And I’m focused fully on that. So I’m going to continue putting all my focus on those things.”
Gers got the win but it was hardly a performance to hush the thousands of Rangers fans now openly calling for change. The Light Blues had to rely on keeper Jack Butland, who pulled off a string of key stops as he emerged victorious from his personal battle with Gorgie frontman Elton Kabangu. But Clement – who saw goals for John Souttar and Cyriel Dessers chalked off for offside – knows now the winning is all that matters at Ibrox.
He said: “The team showed the right mentality, as a group, the players who started, the players who came in, I went into the fight and that’s necessary here. They were against a Hearts team that went full in for the victory with an offensive playing style, with a lot of attacking players with good quality. But the team dug in and took also the right moments during the game.
“It’s a pity that two times we had a small offside call. I didn’t see the images back, but I believe VAR is always right, so we scored almost two goals more in an away game, so that’s good.
“The team showed the right mentality. Was it on the ball all the time with top quality like in our best games? Not today, but it was with the right mentality. And that needs to be the basic. The result is always more important, I hear that from you guys every week. So if the performance is good and we don’t get the results… It’s about the results at the end, always.
“That stays in football for every club. You cannot also say that the performance was not good today, if you scored three goals away at Hearts, and you could have scored more with the offside situations. But there were moments in the game that we could have made better decisions, for sure, defensively and offensively, but the mentality, that was spot on.”
Hailing Butland, he added: “I don’t think there’s one team in the world where the bar is set to win every game who can then do that without having a good goalkeeper. So we know we have one. He was the player of the year last season also, so I’m happy to see Jack in the form he had today.”