'We had wave after wave of attack': Philippe Clement plans focus on finishing

Rangers boss Philippe Clement saw his side move level with Celtic on points at the top of the Premiership and targeted improved finishing to help them take the edge in the title race.

The Ibrox side were 3-1 winners over Ross County on Wednesday night, one goal short of moving ahead of Celtic, but it wasn’t for want of trying as they put County under almost constant pressure.

Match statistics showed Rangers had 43 shots, with 23 on target but only three goals as Cyriel Dessers grabbed a double and John Souttar found the net.

“I think, for sure in my period (in charge) but I think all season, it’s our game with the most shots on target,” Clement said. “That’s what’s the most important in football.

“Twenty-three shots on target they told me.

“I see a team growing week by week, month by month.

“We had wave after wave of attacks. Good possession play, good runs together, good tempo, good shots. But we had a goalkeeper also on the other side who maybe had the evening of his life and a few times luck also on his side. So it could have been much more today. But of course, as a manager, you need to be happy.

“Although I’m not so fast happy with the 3-1 victory because I cannot ask more of my players than what they are doing now. I think every supporter who was in the stadium today and was there four months ago, they would say what a difference for all the players on the pitch.

“So this is the thing we need to do now and the next couple of months to continue doing what we’ve been doing and then we going to take a lot of points, but it’s about doing the hard work every day.”

That hard work is likely to include shooting drills as Clement vowed to work on turning pressure into more goals.

“I think our finishing was also not that bad,” he said. “But it was about centimetres.

“But we can do better, raise our level to be more precise. But those are the next steps to take. The team has already taken a lot of steps.

“You cannot ask much more of the players where they are now in the period we’ve been working together.”

Don Cowie was taking charge fo Ross County for the first time since being appointed as interim manager following Derek Adams’ exit. He admitted the scoreline could have looked a lot worse for him and his players.

“We were fortunate because Rangers were that good,” he said.

“But a club like Ross County coming to the big grounds need fortune and we got that at times.

“Whether it was finishing or very good goalkeeping we just have to move on from it in terms of what I want.

“I saw a team putting their bodies on the line to stop the ball going into the net.

“It was a difficult night. I thought Rangers were excellent from the get go.

“They came out the traps really quick and it was a challenge for the players.

“The positive for me was that they stuck at it, playing against a level of team in great form.

“Going into 90 minutes it’s 2-1 and that’s all I asked for before the game. Try to stay in it before the game and that’s what they did.”