JOB DUN.. BUT GIO’S FAR FROM IMPRESSED

Rangers 1 Dundee United BY MICHAEL GANNON GIO VAN BRONCKHORST branded the Rangers display against Dundee United as the worst of his time in the Ibrox hot seat.

But the true blue grit showed by his side to carve out another victory in the title race shows why his men are the reigning champions.

Van Bronckhorst (inset) refused to sugar coat the performance as they edged out Covid hit United 1-0 thanks to James Tavernier’s second half spot kick (above).

Gers made it seven league wins out of seven under the new gaffer but failed to light up Ibrox in the fog.

United lost half a dozen first team players after an outbreak at Tannadice but the Tangerine teenagers made Rangers work to stretch their lead at the top to seven points.

Van Bronckhorst said: “In the end I was happy with the points – if not the performance.

“For us it was a vital three points. The performance wasn’t the more effective since I came here as coach.

“We’ve had three or four weeks of two games

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a week and I think you could see it in the boys. The energy levels were not 100 percent.

“We had to dig in deep to get the points but we did that. We’ll use this week to have a couple of days off and then prepare for Boxing Day.”

Van Bronckhorst was impressed by the United kids and he admitted his side have to find a solution after failing to find a spark in the final third.

He said: “It was a difficult game. We saw a Dundee United team that did everything to give us a challenge, which they did.

“It was a really good performance by them.

“I think our performance wasn’t the way I wanted to play. We struggled to create chances.

“In the second half we created a bit more danger and had a couple more chances to score.

“Of course we know James is very good at penalties. I was happy to score but Dundee United kept pushing us to get it to 1-1. We said at half-time it would be difficult to create chances against a team who had good organisation and players behind the ball.

“But you know when the game is progressing you get more space, especially when Scott Wright gave us more depth and speed on the right.

“I think that showed in the second half.”

Rangers caught fire after the break following a lacklustre first half against Thomas Courts’ side on home turf.

And van Bronckhorst insisted his subs proved to be the spark with Wright shining from the bench along with Joe Aribo, who had been rested from the starting line up.

The Rangers boss said “Of course. Joe is a very important player and I had to get him in as we needed to score.

“It was positive again also Ryan did really well.

“I was really pleased with the guys we could put in to the game.”