Rangers boss Danny Rohl felt “great” following the “statement” 3-0 win over Dundee which narrowed the gap on William Hill Premiership leaders Hearts to four points.
Home captain James Tavernier scored from the spot early in the second half before substitutes Danilo and Djeidi Gassama added further goals in stoppage time for an eighth successive win in all competitions.
Hearts’ 2-2 draw with Celtic at Tynecastle meant that Rangers leapfrogged their Old Firm rivals to sit behind the Jambos as the title race heats up.
Rohl said: “Yeah, it feels great, but hopefully the feeling will be better and better during the second half of the season because there is still a long way to go. We know this.
“I know at Rangers, the demand is high to get a lot of wins but for me, it’s also eight wins in a row. It’s a statement, especially from the point we were at.
“And if you can continue this and you do your homework and you go again, then yeah, it’s on. We knew before the game, it’s not an easy one. Everyone expected us to win.
“Then you face an opponent who are on a small run. They’re well organised, you have to break them down first. In the first half, we tried but in some moments we had too many players behind the ball instead of in the right areas.
“This was the topic at half-time. Then you come out fantastic, make the goal, then you have two or three good moments so you can score for 2-0 or 3-0 and then in some transition moments we were not clinical, we lose the ball, and we were a little bit too open.
“But finally, then the 3-0 for me, is a statement as well.”
Rohl is especially pleased with his side’s attitude and application as they continue to rack up the wins.
He said: “I think this is the good part, when I look to my group inside the dressing room still after 3-0, that we think we want to do more and better.
“We are not lazy now and thinking, ‘everything goes well’. No, they are still hungry.
“I think this is what I try to live every day in front of them, be humble as well, and if we do this again and again – 15 games to go, we want to be the hunter, we want to hunt on the pitch with our pressing, we want to hunt the teams around us, be on front foot – then we have a lot of fun.”
Dundee boss Steven Pressley, who was “disappointed” with his side’s performance, will move to add to his squad before the transfer window.
The former Rangers defender said: “I think that we probably need to add another couple of new faces to the team.
“Obviously, we’ve had some not-so-good news around the injury front with the likes of Clark Robertson, who could be out for up to six weeks, and Billy Koumetio, who could be out for anything from eight weeks to 12 weeks.
“Two huge players for ourselves. So that’s a real blow. So we have to make sure that we’re not short in these areas.”
