Danny Rohl hails determination over style as Rangers edge Hibernian to go third

Danny Rohl acknowledged determination over style following Rangers’ narrow 1-0 win over Hibernian at Ibrox which took them into the third place in the William Hill Premiership.

It was a far from sparkling performance from a young Gers side who heard the crowd grumble in frustration before defender Emmanuel Fernandez netted with a header in the 34th minute which proved enough to secure all three points.

Since taking over from Russell Martin, the German boss has garnered six wins and two draws in eight domestic fixtures – with five clean sheets – and moved to within nine points of leaders Hearts, whom they face at Tynecastle on Sunday, with a game in hand.

Rohl said: “I’m very proud of the group, the outcome is about results and I’m still not happy with them every time, but I see at the moment a group who is running for each other, who speak to each other, block shots.

“Sometimes we make mistakes, but the basics are right at the moment and if you do the basics right, then I feel we have quality in areas to win games.

“From the last eight games, six wins, it’s not because we play tiki-taka, it’s about effort, effort, effort.

“We know it was not the nicest game in some parts.

“I think also in the first half, between 10 to 25 minutes, we lost a little bit of control, but always when we’re attacking forward, when we play forward, then you feel we can really hurt opponents, this is what we have to do more.

“But when I look at the moment how many players we have not available and I see then that we’re running 95 minutes and put everything on, for me it was a fully deserved win, even at some moments, but all in all it was great.

“I wish in the future that we use the open spaces from the opponent to kill them. I think this is also crucial, because then I can relax a bit more on the touchline.”

Hibs boss David Gray was left frustrated by the defeat, saying: I asked the players to be brave, be aggressive, get after Rangers and go toe-to-toe and I thought they did.

“I thought they won the ball back well, in good areas and had a lot of control in the first half.

“But the bit that let us down all night probably, which has been really unlike us, is the final third.

“So, for all the control I felt we had, considering this was a difficult venue to come, their keeper didn’t really have a save to make, so it wasn’t as if we had chance after chance and I think that was down to a lack of decision making sometimes and a lack of quality.”