Philippe Clement claims he has ‘200 per cent’ backing of Rangers board

Philippe Clement claimed the Rangers board are “200 per cent” behind him after Gers fans exploded in anger following the 1-1 draw against Dundee which left them 15 points behind William Hill Premiership leaders Celtic.

The Light Blue began the game with just three wins in 10 league fixtures away from Ibrox and they fell behind in the sixth minute to a finish from attacking midfielder Oluwaseun Adewumi.

Gers winger Vaclav Cerny levelled in the 34th minute  but on a freezing night on Tayside the Light Blues could do no more and their supporters vented their anger at the final whistle.

It was more ammunition for those who believe Clement’s time at Ibrox should be up but asked if he was confident that the board, which has a new chief executive in Patrick Stewart, are still behind him 100 per cent, the Belgian boss replied: “Yes, 200 per cent.

“We have talks every day about everything, about January, about next season, about everything.

“Yes, of course the fans are unhappy.

“We are also unhappy, all of us are unhappy, to lose these three points.

“Supporters are always behind us when we are good, when we play good games. So today it was not a good game.

“So I understand that they are unhappy about that.

“I know these supporters, that they don’t give up the moment we show quality. It’s about us showing the quality on the pitch and then they are directly behind the team, always.

“So it’s our task to do that as fast as possible. That starts on Sunday, to show quality again and on both sides of the game. Not only offensively, also defensively.

“Today, defensively, it was better compared with the last away games. In that way, a positive. The game that Clinton Nsiala played for his first game for the Rangers, a positive point.

“But at the end, it’s about results, of course. A lot of points spilled over the last two or three weeks.”

Dundee boss Tony Docherty, who had 10 players missing, was delighted with his side’s performance and thought his side should have had a penalty when  Nsiala clashed with Simon Murray inside the Rangers box, seconds before the visitors levelled on the counter-attack.

He said: “I thought that was an outstanding performance from my team.

“It’s really easy before the game to bring in all excuses, and it’s a fact, you know, that we’ve got 10 players out, and we have such a small squad, you could bleat on about that.

“But the mentality, the resilience, the spirit of the group, and to put in that level of performance against a team as strong as Rangers, the disparity in resources and all that kind of stuff, when we are so threadbare in terms of resources, speaks absolute volumes about every player in that dressing room. I couldn’t be more proud of them.

“I am disappointed in the goal we lose but I think it is a penalty.

“I think the defender is really clumsy going into Simon Murray, and we kind of switch off a wee bit and lose a goal.

“At the time I seen it, and I thought it was a really clumsy, clumsy challenge by the defender, and when Simon goes down, I was asking the fourth official and tell me, they’re checking it, and they’re checking it.

“Sometimes you go with our gut you and I thought it was a clumsy challenge by the defender. I thought it was a penalty and I think they should have taken a wee bit more time looking at it.”