Philippe Clement demands Rangers win by any means as 'sexy' football took backseat at St Mirren

Philippe Clement has always echoed the sentiment but this afternoon's win at St Mirren was all about winning by any means necessary.

The Rangers manager was satisfied with the three points as they narrowly bested the Buddies with a 2-1 scoreline after James Bolton's own goal and a header from Cyriel Dessers cancelled out Mikael Mandron's leveller. It was an awkward afternoon for the Light Blues who didn't have it all their own way but Clement insists they very rarely will.

The Belgian knows it's all about the victory and not how his side have played, particularly, even if he'd always prefer they win in style. But with the title race so close with Celtic also victorious at Dundee, it matters little how the points come so long as they do.

"That they did what they need to do and that is winning games," Clement said. "That is the first thing. Was it our most sexy game? No. But it is also the circumstances and all respect to St Mirren also. They are aggressive, they are powerful in the duels, the pitch is also smaller and that creates more duels. We had to dig in, we knew that from before but the team did. We get the result. I don’t think if you don’t lead with 2-0 or 3-0 that one team will have an easy game here. That is because of the quality and mentality of St Mirren, of their players and their manager. It is about taking the three points, and with a very good second goal also."

Is it about winning no matter what it takes? "Of course. It is all season like that.

"Football is about the results in the end. Nobody remembers that we won 4-0 against Hibs in October with really good football, or other games. At the end it is about the points. We had a lot of good games like that but you need in a season games that you win with resilience or mentality or digging in together and fighting.

"There is not one team in the world who only wins games in a very beautiful way, like the team did already several times. For sure, not teams who win trophies. You need both and they showed the right mentality today. Now it is getting good recovery and working towards next weekend to go towards then."