Clement gives his players rare Sunday off

MANAGER Philippe Clement revealed his Rangers side earned themselves a rare Sunday off after going five points clear of Celtic at the top of the cinch Premiership with a 5-0 win over Hearts.

Midfielder Mohamed Diomande’s fine strike in just over a minute at Ibrox set the tone for an impressive performance.

Oscar Cortes doubled that lead with his first goal for the club he joined in January with striker Cyriel Dessers adding a third and fourth either side of the break before substitute Fabio Silva notched a fifth to pile pressure on Celtic, who take on Motherwell at Fir Park today.

Clement, looking ahead to the visit to Kilmarnock on Wednesday night, said: “There is nothing won. We won three points and have a difficult day again on Wednesday. I am already thinking about Wednesday.

“That is my character and it is what it is. It is also the best way and I want to see that from my players also. They can enjoy it, they can be happy today.

“They even have a day off tomorrow, that doesn’t happen that much. That was to be decided about results in the last couple of weeks so they deserve that.

“I expect that they come in really fresh on Monday with a lot of mentality and hunger for more. It is all about that. To be ambitious, to be hungry for more, to be better.”

Third-place Hearts suffered their first defeat in 13 matches and manager Steven Naismith was unhappy at the goals his side conceded.

The former Ibrox forward said: “We lost some of the weakest goals we have conceded at bad times in the game. After Rangers going top of the league last week and playing before Celtic this week, we knew they were going to start fast and the atmosphere would be loud and we probably didn’t deal with that well enough.”