Connor Goldson: Rangers are ‘feeding off’ winning-run confidence

Connor Goldson believes Rangers are “feeding off” winning-run confidence after their cinch Premiership title hopes were reinforced with a 5-0 home hammering of Hearts on Saturday.

The Light Blues took the lead in just over a minute through a strike from midfielder Mohamed Diomande and then never really looked back.

Wide-man Oscar Cortes scored his first goal as a Gers player after 36 minutes, with striker Cyriel Dessers adding a third and fourth just before and after the break.

Substitute Fabio Silva scored added the gloss to make it 10-straight wins for Philippe Clement’s side, who are still two points clear of Celtic after Sunday’s 3-1 win at Motherwell.

Rangers defender Goldson, 31, who was making his 300th appearance since signing from Brighton in 2018, told Rangers TV: “Obviously it’s belief but I just think we’re feeding off confidence at the minute.

“We are feeding off hard work and that’s breeding wins and when you’re winning games, things seem to go your way.

“The fans stayed with us for 90 minutes. They seemed a lot more patient than a couple of weeks ago.

“But I think that shows that they can see that we’re a team trying our best even through difficult moments. We’re working hard together.

“And now we just need to keep going, keep working hard every single day and keep taking it game by game and keep this confidence.

“Maybe apart from the last 20 minutes, when we turned it into a basketball game, we should have enjoyed it a bit more.

“But apart from that, it was a dominant performance. Dominant with the ball, dominant without it. When we pressed high, we caused them problems.

“We were playing against a good team and at times in the first half and the second, we had to suffer as a team and Jack (Butland) made a couple of big saves but we limited them as much as we could and we got a clean sheet and five goals so hopefully everyone is happy.”

On his landmark appearance, Goldson said: “I knew in the week it was my 300th game and obviously a big game playing against third in the league at home.

“We knew we had to put on a performance and just keep on going the way we are. And I thought that we did that – the boys were excellent.

“This is my sixth year here, so it’s not a bad ratio, 300 already, but now I just want to keep going.

“I’m enjoying myself and I’m excited about the future and what’s happening at this football club at the moment and long may it continue.”

It was the first defeat in 13 for the visitors and Tynecastle boss Steven Naismith wanted to make amends in the Edinburgh derby against Hibernian on Wednesday.

He told HeartsTV: “We were off it and our passing wasn’t at the level it has been at.

“We had obviously been on a good run and we need to use this as fuel to go again.

“We have the game on Wednesday to look forward to and hopefully get back to winning ways.”