Philippe Clement focused on points not goals as Rangers prepare to face St Mirren

Rangers boss Philippe Clement insists three points is the only thing he is focused on against St Mirren following a clinical night in front of goal in Europe.

The Light Blues responded positively to last weekend’s damaging 1-0 defeat at Kilmarnock in the Premiership with a convincing 4-0 Europa League win over Romanian outfit FCSB at Ibrox on Thursday night.

A Vaclav Cerny double was book-ended by Tom Lawrence’s opener and a first Rangers goal for Moroccan striker Hamza Igamane to seal a convincing win, leaving the Ibrox men with six points from nine in the newly-formatted European competition.

Asked how important it is for the players to back up the performance on Sunday with a big win against the Buddies at Ibrox, the Gers boss said: “No, not with a big win. With a win.

“All respect to St Mirren. It’s about winning the games.

“If we can make it big wins, we will go full for that. But we know it will be a hard game again, to break open the wall and not concede on the transitions and on the set-pieces.

“So it’s going to be a challenging game after a big European night. It’s about recovering well. And in that way my young team also still need to learn how to control their energy in the right moments.

“So those are again lessons to take out of this experience. And to grow in that the next couple of months and the next couple of years with all of them.”

The Belgian boss was pleased to see a more clinical side to Cerny’s game, the Czech Republic international taking his tally to five since signing on loan from Bundesliga club VfL Wolfsburg, after missing big chances in previous Europa League games against Lyon and Malmo.

Clement said: “He knows his quality. We know his quality also, but he has all my confidence.

“I told him that also, that he has all my confidence because he’s not only a really good player, but also somebody who’s working really hard for the team.

“It was really a quality goal with his lesser good (right) foot, to curl the ball in like that. So I want to see more and more of that in the next weeks and the next months.

“That’s a challenge. We cannot be satisfied after Thursday. It needs to create much more hunger to become better and better.”