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Rangers Fan View: Victory over Hibs wasn't pretty but it was the night this Rangers team grew a pair

If Saturday’s win over Ross County was ugly, I must admit, I am struggling to find a word to describe that Rangers performance at Easter Road. But do you know what? I absolutely loved it. Was it painful to watch at times? Of course it was. It was watch-through-your fingers stuff. But I will take it all day long.

The reason why I will accept a 2-1 victory in that manner is because this team is finally beginning to grow a set. It’s absolutely fantastic to see. They are now behaving exactly how I expect a Rangers team to behave. The players are showing the characteristics that made Walter Smith’s spells at Ibrox so fruitful. They are finally getting it. It’s not about how you win at this club, it’s about winning no matter what. It’s taken a season and a half but they are on the right track.

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Make no mistake about it, we were absolutely terrible and did not deserve to come away from Easter Road with three points, but the players showed fight, grit, heart and desire to get the win and we rode our luck with the David Bates handball too. It was unfortunate for Hibs that their most influential character this season John Beaton was unavailable on the night and couldn’t help them over the line like he did in August at Ibrox.

In fact, it took us until the 40th minute to play any kind of football. When we did, Josh Windass equalised and it’s now two in two for Morelos when he twisted Paul Hanlon all way before finding the net to give us an unlikely lead at the half-time break. It never looked like coming at all.

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That’s as good as it got attacking-wise for us. It was about being industrious, compact and showing the required resilience and resolve in order to stop their main threats and getting over the finishing line, which we managed to do.

We have to be thankful to Wes Foderingham for keeping us in it with two superb saves at 1-0 down. Yet again proving how underrated he is by some of our fans. In terms of the players winning some of their individual battles, I felt Ross McCrorie played Anthony Stokes really well, so much so that the ex-Celtic man was barely in the game.

McCrorie was composed and timed his tackles well, and generally made sure Stokes had little to no impact on the match. At 19, the boy will get better and better and he handled this kind of occasion superbly well.

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Furthermore, I thought Jason Holt stopped John McGinn running the midfield. He matched him for tenacity, work rate and end product. In fact, Holt even managed to get an assist to his name for Windass’ goal.

Lastly, I felt Oli Shaw would be a big threat, considering he should have been on a high after scoring the equaliser against Celtic on Sunday. To be honest, he was never given a sniff. Danny Wilson had him under control all game. It was one of Danny’s finer displays in a Rangers shirt, especially since his return.

Lastly, on Graeme Murty, he took a calculated risk. He changed systems three times during the game and went 5-4-1 for the last 20 minutes, which helped us deal with the late Hibs onslaught. Bates, Wilson and Alves were faultless in latter stages of the game. They won everything in the air. Credit to Bruno Alves as well, he was done for the Hibs goal, but he came out in the second half and put in the performance of a man who loves defending, which helped us get over the line.

The three points are massive, absolutely no doubt about it. But as I alluded to previously, for this team to show a side to them that they can come back from adversity and dig in deep and come out the other side with the victory in the manner it was achieved was the biggest positive for me. That sort of win-at-all-costs mentality has been lacking at Ibrox for a very long time. I hope it’s here to stay.