Michael Stewart told his Rangers 'astonishment' is misplaced as Clement's hidden face makes up for public nice guy act

Philippe Clement's glowing assessment of Rangers' performance against Hearts is fine - as long as he's not saying the same in the dressing room.

That's the view of former Ibrox defender Ricky Foster who defended the manager from Michael Stewart's stinging criticism. Clement said his side were the better team in a game they trailed for 85 minutes, only for a late one-two punch from James Tavernier and Danilo to get them out of jail.

They'd conceded to Lawrence Shankland's early header and a missed Tavernier penalty before his successful effort hinted it wasn't going to be their day. It was by no means a fluid Rangers performance but a stunning late show made it two league wins from two for Clement, who said it was a deserved three points. That led to Stewart saying on Sportscene that he was 'astonished' by the new boss' view on things.

Foster though believes it was fair game and says it's refreshing to see a manager bigging his players up rather than running them down. But he also reckons it would have been a different story in the dressing room after the match.

He said on BBC Sportsound: "I can see where Clement's coming from in a certain respect. He’s a new manager, he’s just in the door. We don’t know what he says in the dressing room, so in there he could be telling them, ‘Look, we’ve won the game but it needs to be better, we need to move the ball quicker, play at a higher tempo.'. But he comes out in the press and he’s positive and he’s behind his players, and he says full credit to them. I like that.

“As a player in the dressing room you feel that your manager’s now got your back, that he’s going to give you the benefit of the doubt, regardless of the true message he gives to the players in the dressing room.

“That