On-loan forward Fabio Silva targets trophies as Rangers march on

Fabio Silva wants Rangers to keep the winning bandwagon rolling after closing in on Premiership leaders Celtic with a comprehensive 3-0 home win over bottom side Livingston on Saturday.

The Portuguese striker, who arrived in Glasgow from Wolves on loan last month, opened his Gers account after 40 minutes when he pounced on a loose ball inside the box to slam the ball past Livi keeper Shamal George.

Winger Rabbi Matondo added a second before the break with a deflected strike from distance and midfielder Todd Cantwell knocked in a Ross McCausland cut-back on 56 minutes to take Rangers to within three points of Celtic with a game in hand.

The Viaplay Cup winners also have the Scottish Gas Scottish Cup in their sights and welcome Ayr United to Ibrox next Saturday.

Rangers have won five in a row since the turn of the year and ahead of the visit of Aberdeen on Tuesday night, Silva told RangersTV: “It was amazing, the most important thing was the victory.

“We have had good results and it is important we continue with these with good moments.

“Everyone is involved in this and doing everything for Rangers to win titles in the final part of the season.

“The most important thing was the victory and the clean sheet and of course I am very happy to score my first goal because it is important.

“It was a little bit different for me because I played against three big centre-backs and it was a bit difficult to move.

“I like to move so they held me, but it was nice to be aware in the box, to feel when the ball comes and after I scored, I was very happy.

“Starting with me and finishing on Jack Butland we did a brilliant job in defensive and offensive, so the most important thing is the winning and now we have to prepare for the next game.”

Livingston have now gone 16 league games without a win and boss David Martindale, who saw his side come back twice at home to second bottom Ross County last Tuesday night to draw 2-2, looked for context after failing to trouble Gers keeper Butland.

He said: “There is a big difference between Ross County at Livingston and Rangers at Ibrox. You could probably go back 20 games and there would be about three shots on target.

“You are going there and you are trying to pose an attacking threat, but you’d need to be expansive and open up to create chances.

“But we have lost sloppy goals recently and I felt the last thing we needed was to go there and focus on posing more of an attacking threat.

“The game plan was to get in 0-0 at half-time, see out the next 15 minutes and then change the shape and personnel.

“But it’s difficult to make sure your defensive shape is bang on while also posing an attacking threat.”