Martin O’Neill tells Rangers to ‘eke out results’ in pursuit of confidence boost

Under-fire Rangers boss Philippe Clement simply needs to find a way to win while trying to stay in touch with Celtic, according to former Hoops manager Martin O’Neill.

The Ibrox club are in disarray with the 1-0 defeat at Kilmarnock on Sunday leaving the Light Blues six points behind Brendan Rodgers’ side and Aberdeen at the top of the Premiership, while there is no permanent chairman, chief executive or director of football in post.

O’Neill, who jousted with Rangers between 2000 and 2005 when both sides were more evenly matched, winning three titles, three Scottish Cups and a League Cup while reaching the UEFA Cup final in 2003, assessed the current Old Firm rivalry on talkSPORT, describing Rangers as “really poor”.

He advised Rangers’ Belgian boss, who is just over a year into the job, to do what it takes to win games.

He said: “You have to eke out results, and until you actually get some clear pattern about your team, about the way they’re going to play, just hang in there, go and win the game.

“And no matter how ugly it might be, go and win, you had the opportunity there, Celtic had dropped a couple of points.

“That’s the team that you have to be concerned about, go and get the result. However you get the result, just go and get it.

“And it didn’t happen at Kilmarnock. And I watched a fair chunk of the game as well too. And they didn’t look like scoring a goal. And that was the whole point and that’s the feeling you get about this particular side.

“They have to go and win. They have to eke out about three consecutive victories to give themselves a bit of hope and a bit of confidence.”