Danny Rohl admits he cannot stop smiling after Rangers heat up title race

Danny Rohl admits Hearts’ William Hill Premiership title setback on Saturday night left him smiling after Rangers moved to within three points of the leaders with a 1-0 win at managerless St Mirren.

The Jambos’ 1-0 defeat at Kilmarnock opened the door for the Light Blues and they took advantage with left-back Tuur Rommens scoring his first Gers goal after 31 minutes for a first victory in four matches in all competitions.

With eight games remaining, the Ibrox side are three points behind Hearts and one point behind second-placed Celtic, who knocked Rangers out of the Scottish Gas Scottish Cup at Ibrox last Sunday after drawing in the league in Govan the previous week.

Rangers boss Rohl, who had spoken before the game about the need to win ‘nine cup finals’, said: “Yeah, I would be lying if I said I was not smiling after this (Hearts result), this is normal.

“But I know we have to deliver again next week.

“And it now goes a little bit up and down, the team who is consistent until the end and take the right results, will win this league.

“We are happy today. I think after three good performances without the right result, we took the result and this is the most important thing.

“When you go in the cup finals, it’s about winning games and today we won the first cup final.

“I felt this morning when we met each other, there was so much energy in the dressing room. It was fantastic.

“There’s so much belief in our group, there’s no doubt that we can achieve something this season, but you have to take the results and today we did.

“I think the table now looks better than before this matchday and this is great.”

After losing boss Stephen Robinson to Aberdeen during the week, the Buddies had an interim coaching team in place which included under-19 boss Craig McLeish working alongside goalkeeping coach Jamie Langfield.

St Mirren battled hard but remain in 10th place, above Kilmarnock on goal difference.

“I can’t ask any more of the boys, their attitudes towards everything this week with what’s going on at the club, how they’ve been with me and the effort and energy that they showed on the pitch was fantastic,” said McLeish, before he confirmed some bad news on the injury front.

He said: “Marcus Fraser broke his collarbone last week against Partick Thistle. He had surgery on Friday, it looks like his season will be over unfortunately.

“Keanu Baccus had an Achilles injury on Thursday, he’s booked in for surgery this Thursday.

“Looks like that could be a number of months. The disappointing thing for Keanu and for us, is that his World Cup dream (with Australia) is probably over.

“Declan John picked up an issue yesterday in training. He’s going to see a specialist on Monday.

“Declan, it’s like an issue in his groin, but it’s presented itself that it may be the start of a hernia, but we need to get it checked out.

“That might be a short-term one or it might be a long-term one, we’re a bit unclear on that, but we’ll have an answer on that at the start of the week.”