Gio van Bronckhorst in blunt Rangers '3 points and home' verdict as he responds to substitution query

Giovanni van Bronckhorst admitted it was “three points in the bag and go home” after grinding out a win at McDiarmid Park.

Glen Kamara’s rapid opener for just his third goal of the season was enough to seal victory and keep the pressure on leaders and rivals Celtic.

It was far from a classic performance from the champions on bobbly pitch in Perth but it was job done for the champions.

And speaking on Sky Sports afterwards, Dutchman Van Bronckhorst summed up his evening’s work when he said: “Three points in the bag and go home.

“Sometimes football is like that. It was a very tough game as we predicted before the game.

“There were a lot of duels, a lot of long balls. The pitch wasn’t the standard we want to play our game so we had to play a little bit differently and the the early goal lifted us up.

“They opened up after that and in the first half we had a lot of chances to score. We hit the post, a shot from close range over the bar.

“I don’t think we gave any chances away in the second half. We had to fight to win this game and we did.

“The fast start was key because they started with five defenders and they changed the system after the first goal which made it a little bit easier for us.

“It’s always good to start but as we said before we had many chances against but I felt defensively we were very solid and won our duels and sometimes a game needs that.

“If you score a goal and are ruthless in defending then you will win the game and we could have win with a greater margin but we’re happy with the points.”

Sky Sports pundits Kris Boyd and James McFadden questioned whether Van Bronckhorst fully trusted his squad after failing to make any changes despite a nervy ending.

But he said: “Sometimes you turn things around