St Mirren 1-2 Rangers: Philippe Clement praises his side's fighting spirit as Cyriel Dessers nets late to keep their title charge alive in a narrow win at the SMiSA Stadium

Philippe Clement praised Rangers for keeping their title challenge alive - despite leaving their ‘sexy’ football at home.

On course to drop points in a fourth successive league match, the Ibrox boss had Cyriel Dessers to thank for netting the late goal which earned them a narrow win at St Mirren.

Ahead through James Bolton’s own goal, the visitors were pegged back before the interval through Mikael Mandron’s header.

But Rangers ensured they remain alive in the race when Dessers nodded home his 20th goal of the season with just 16 minutes remaining.

Clement conceded that his side’s display was not from the top drawer – but felt their battling qualities made all the difference.

‘That they did what they need to do and that is winning games,’ said the Belgian.

‘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.’

Clement stressed that winning by any means possible is all that really matters especially at this time of the season.

‘Of course. It is all season like that,’ he added. ‘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 (some) 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.’

Dessers, a £4.3m signing from Cremonese, struggled to get going at Ibrox earlier in the campaign.

But Clement feels his contribution to the cause is now clearer for all to see.

‘It is not only the goals,’ he stressed. ‘It is also the work he is doing without ball, also his work as high support.

‘He is working really hard for the team, he is giving everything. He changed the situation himself in a really good way.

‘If I hear what the fans are singing now or six months ago, there are different songs.

‘But he deserves because he has been working really hard to help the team, not only thinking about himself but to help the team. Then the moments come and the situations come to be decisive in that position. It was again a really good finish today and a good cross of Tav also.’

St Mirren manager Stephen Robinson was reluctant to take much consolation from another positive display which yielded zero points.

“Frustration,’ he said when asked what his main emotion at the end was.

‘Ultimately, I’ve had a lot of ‘well-dones’ this season from top class managers. Philippe was very complimentary about how good we are, the style of play we have, and Brendan (Rodgers) was the same a couple of weeks ago, but ultimately, we’ve come out with no points from both games.

“We created enough chances today to win the game, never mind draw it. Their keeper made some terrific saves. The two goals are very much avoidable, two poor goals to concede.

“The first one was a lack of communication, which is something we crave from the boys. Society doesn’t speak a lot to each other now so we try to demand that from them, but we didn’t do it there and we were punished.

“The second one, as much as it’s a very good cross, if we defended that 100 times we would win it, when it’s 1 v 3 in the box.

“The goals were frustrating ones to lose. We have to be better than that and we demand better than that. All the ‘well dones’ in the world don’t get you points unfortunately.”

Stressing that no one will give themselves a pat on the back for another plucky display, Robinson added: “We don’t accept that. Previously at the football club we’d have said we were unlucky.

‘We weren’t unlucky, we should have defended better. If we want to be a sustainable top-six club, which I believe we have the quality to be, we have to be better than that.

“We have to take our chances and I’ll demand that. The boys know I’ll demand that. It’s not, oh we got beat by Rangers and that’s okay. We want more. I demand more and I believe we will get more with the quality that we have.”