Philippe Clement will not take Kilmarnock lightly as Rangers continue title bid

Philippe Clement will give Kilmarnock every respect as he expects Rangers’ title battle to go to the wire.

The Light Blues are three points behind cinch Premiership leaders Celtic going into the last four games of the season.

Celtic, who overcame Dundee 2-1 away last week, host Hearts on Saturday afternoon while Rangers, who escaped St Mirren last week with a 2-1 win, welcome fourth-placed Killie to Ibrox on Sunday.

Derek McInnes’s impressive fourth-placed side beat Rangers in the first league game of the season when Michael Beale was Gers boss and have enjoyed a Viaplay Cup win over Celtic while taking four points in three league games against Brendan Rodgers’ side.

Clement said: “Kilmarnock have a good track record. They have won three game against the Old Firm teams this season, two against Celtic, one against Rangers.

“I had the luck that we won two games (against Kilmarnock), not only luck because we did the right things.

“Every game will be tight. We saw it in St Mirren, we saw (with Celtic) in Dundee. It was not a big difference, we both took the points. It will be like this until the end.”

After the visit of Kilmarnock, Rangers have to go to Celtic Park then face Dundee at Ibrox before finishing off the league campaign with a visit to Hearts.

The Belgian boss retains belief that they can overcome the reigning champions.

He said: “Of course. As long as it’s mathematically possible, of course, it’s possible and there are much bigger surprises that have happened in the past, not only in title races but in all kinds of games.

“You can be three points behind in the last five minutes of the last game and it can change.

“We need to focus on one thing and that’s ourselves and take as many points as possible, that’s the thing that you need to do.

“That’s the only thing you can control so we’re going to focus on that.”

Clement will be without experienced defender Connor Goldson after he injured his knee in training on Wednesday.

The vice-captain was left on the bench for the last two games but will be a big loss to Rangers in the run-in but Clement believes there are still enough men of standing and influence in his squad.

The former Genk, Club Brugge and Monaco boss said: “Title race or not, we have enough leaders. I’m sure of that. You also become a leader by getting experiences.

“It’s true that not many were in a title race before, but maybe other players were a lot, like I had in the past with some players and they were not leaders because of that.

“They were in a title race four or five times but it was other players who took leadership. I think we have enough of those in the group and I feel a lot of hunger in the team to keep on chasing, what we’ve been doing almost all year.

“One moment we were shortly above but the rest we’ve been chasing. We will keep on focusing on ourselves and trying to get the three points every time.“