James Tavernier has the Rangers mentality that Philippe Clement wants as boss addresses 's***' scenario

Philippe Clement saluted skipper James Tavernier after watching his captain bounce back from penalty pain to inspire Rangers to their thrilling win over Hearts.

Tavernier blew a golden chance to cancel out Lawrence Shankland’s fifth-minute opener when he slammed a spot-kick off a post with the last kick off the first half. But the right-back showed his bottle when he stepped up to stroke home another 90th-minute effort before whipping in a sensational cross for Danilo’s dramatic winner three minutes later. Gers had been abject for most of the game until Tavernier helped drag them over the line to a win which cuts the gap on Premiership leaders Celtic back to five points.

But Clement couldn’t fault his team’s fighting spirit, best typified by his captain. He said: “Was it perfect? No. But for me it’s a reference game. They’ve seen if they never give up a lot of good things happen. It’s not a guarantee that you win every game but we are going to win much more games than we have done until now.

“It’s a big step forward for me and in that way Tav was an example. Missing the penalty, getting the stick, in that moment you can lose confidence, you can go down, you can stop taking responsibility.

“But he took the second penalty, he scored it and afterwards he gave the assist for the second goal. I want to see everybody with that mentality in my dressing room because then we’re going to make an amazing season.”

The jeers that were a regular occurrence under Clement’s predecessor Michael Beale were back in abundance for the Belgian’s third game in command as they struggled to break down the Jambos. Cyriel Dessers and Sam Lammers were both the target of frustrated supporters as they again failed to justify their combined