Antonio Colak believes the 'amazing' heights Rangers hit at Easter Road on Wednesday prove they can break Celtic’s stranglehold of the Scottish game.
The Croatian bagged a double in a 4-1 win over Hibs to keep his side nine points behind their bitter rivals at the top of the Premiership. But he believes the standards they have set in two recent trips to the capital are a sign of what is to come under new boss Michael Beale.
Colak – who looks set to lead the line again this weekend against Raith Rovers in the Scottish Cup quarter-finals – said: “In the final third the combinations we had were really amazing. Now I think we know what we have to show on the pitch to ensure a successful game. We have to stick with this. It has to be the standard. We want to win every game. If we are at our standards then I believe we will do that. This is the thing with our fans behind us, we can create a big dominance in the future.”
Earlier this week Colak warned his team-mates that they would face a “chaotic” 90 minutes in Leith against an improved Hibs side. The striker said: “We knew what to expect in this game because this was a special game for Hibs after the unfortunate death of their chairman.
“We knew and we knew we had to stick to our game plan, which I think we did. To lose an early goal was unlucky but we just continued in the same way, you saw the intensity and the speed in which we played.
“We created a lot of chances and it was a deserved 4-1 win. Perhaps the only regret was there weren’t more goals for us. I have to say the relationships we had on the pitch were amazing, the intensity with which we played was amazing.
“We had control of the game with our power. It doesn’t matter how many miles we have to run or at what speed, you saw our hunger to regain the ball, we worked hard.
“We tried to be dominant and to make sure that we didn’t give them any chances to come near our goal.”
Now Colak has his eyes fixed on lifting silverware at the end of his first season in Scotland. He said: “This is what every player dreams of and this is what I want too.
“I am here not only to score goals but I want to win trophies as well. I have been in the Ibrox trophy room, I was there at the beginning when I joined the club so I know about the history and what is there.
“I have also seen plenty of YouTube videos of what the feeling is like for the players when they win trophies at this club. This is what I want too.”
