Cyriel Dessers says ‘a lot of growth’ left in Rangers after thrashing Hibernian

Cyriel Dessers believes Rangers will go from strength to strength after new boss Philippe Clement began his tenure with a 4-0 win over Hibernian on Saturday.

The Belgian took over the hot seat last Sunday and was given a huge ovation before the game, which provided instant encouragement for the Ibrox faithful.

Rangers played more direct and with tempo and got their rewards after 17 minutes when attacker Abdallah Sima scored his seventh goal in seven games with a fine finish.

Midfielder Nicolas Raskin doubled the lead just before the break with a drive from distance, Sima added a third in the 65th minute and Dessers got his close-range goal 10 minutes from time to complete a comprehensive win.

The 28-yearold Nigeria international told RangersTV:  “The manager wants us to play with energy and show it as well to the fans; high pressing, play aggressively and forward.

“We showed some bits of this, but there’s still a lot of growth left for us.

“I’m sure we’ll do that, and we’ll then be a team that is difficult to stop.

“It’s a part of the game that I like to do. I’m still growing to my best level, but this was a step towards it.

“I hope with the new energy inside the dressing room, with the new staff and the fans, that we can push on.”

Dessers praised substitute Todd Cantwell for setting him up for his goal which rounded off probably Rangers’ best performance of the season so far.

He said: “When Todd came on you could see his quality. I saw Tav (James Tavernier) making the run as he always does, and he pulled two defenders with him, so I became free at the last moment.

“It was an unbelievable pass from Todd to find me, I faked the shot, before putting it into the corner. I’m really happy about the goal.

“The atmosphere was unbelievable. The gaffer said at half-time that we had the fans behind us, that we need to keep up the energy, and we picked some early balls up in the second half and it got the crowd going.

“You can then see what’s possible at Ibrox and it was a nice afternoon to be playing with 50,000 people.”

A powerful Rangers performance ended the Easter Road side’s six-game unbeaten run – five under Nick Montgomery – and the Hibs boss said: “I genuinely thought we quietened them down at the start, played some good stuff, but the first goal is really important.

“After that it takes a bit of pressure off them, they get into the game a bit more. The second goal really did come at a time when we could have got back in the game.

“At 2-0 down, you have to come out and try to play. If you just sit back, you’re not going to score a goal.

“But we weren’t great in the final third. And a couple of sloppy mistakes at the back against clinical players cost us. That was the disappointing thing for me.”