Giovanni van Bronckhorst declared the title race on as he ordered his Rangers side to go into the winter break on a high before recharging their batteries for a huge push in the second half of the season.
Malik Tillman’s fourth goal of the season eased the pressure on the under-fire Dutchman with the only goal at a nervy Ibrox against Hearts to make it six wins out of six against Robbie Neilson’s Jambos, who missed the chance to go third in the Scottish Premiership, as Light Blues gaffer.
The victory ensured the gap at the top of the table to rivals and champions Celtic didn’t get any bigger as they remain seven points behind Ange Postecoglou’s men and Van Bronckhorst was delighted. Now they head to St Mirren for a tricky clash on Saturday lunchtime where they could cut the gap at the top to four points with a win in Paisley before Celtic take on Ross County at Parkhead later in the day. The top flight then goes into cold storage for a month with Rangers first in action again when the action returns with a home game against Hibs on December 15 and Van Bronckhorst hopes his side are just warming up.
He wants them to secure back to back wins going into that break when the club will get the chance to reset after a tough time which saw them earn the unwanted record as the Champions League’s worst ever group stage side.
They also fell seven points behind Celtic at the top following a defeat to St Johnstone a McDiarmid Park on Sunday which saw calls for the Dutchman to go and there were jeers at half time against the Jambos when the game was deadlocked.
But Tillman’s goal lifted the mood and as he looks ahead, Van Bronckhorst said: “It’s important to finish with a win and get the three points. Then we have a break and five weeks before we play our first competitive game after the break so we can rest a bit and recover and prepare well for the second half of the season.
“A five-week break is good to have so hopefully we get players back from injury and start fresh again against Hibs. Of course the title race is still on. We have to show that every game and give everything we have to win the games we play and that’s the same for Saturday. We forget about this game and prepare well for St Mirren and try to get the three points.
“I’m happy. First of all I’m happy for the team and the club that we got three points and after that comes the manager. The club is always the most important thing so I’m happy that we won the three points for this club.”
Rangers toiled to break down Hearts in the first half but Scott Arfield and Scott Wright both injected new energy into the team while a rejuvenated Ryan Kent upped his game with a jinking run in the build up to Tillman’s winner.
Van Bronckhorst said: “Every player who came in gave extra energy to push even more, especially in the first 20, 25 minutes we needed energy and runs and we did that much better in the second half with the energy we put into that.
“Our energy and work rate we did really well. First half we tried to get an early goal. We started really well and some transition moments where we had so much space and didn’t convert that into goals.
“In the second half we did much better with our positions in the box when we were in the final third. The goal was an example of how you need to play against opponents when they defend that deep.
“In the first half and beginning of the second half you always had the threat of the two strikers when we were attacking and in one or two moments they were quite dangerous in that so we had to be really focused for the whole game. We tried to score the second goal but overall in the last 20 minutes we didn’t give any chance away.”
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