Philippe Clement reveals why he gave Rangers celebration dance between Cantwell and Danilo short shrift

Philippe Clement admits he's no fan of plastic pitches - but has warned his Rangers players he won’t stand for any excuses if they slip up at Livingston tomorrow.

The Ibrox boss is set for his first taste of a synthetic surface in Scottish football at the Tony Macaroni Arena as he looks to eat into Celtic’s eight point lead for a few hours at least. And he reckons the change in surface is similar to that of top level tennis players switching between grass and hard court. Clement is also convinced plastic surfaces account for too many injuries, in particular serious ACL problems.

But he is in no mood for excuses as he looks to keep his 100 per cent league record in tact in West Lothian tomorrow. As manager of Brugge and Genk in his homeland the 49-year-old encountered a 4G park at Sint-Truidense VV.

And he said: "Artificial surfaces change the way in which the ball moves and you need to adapt to that. I want a team who will never use this as an excuse. The only important thing is winning, regardless of the surface. It's another ball game. It's totally different, the speed of the ball, the way it bounces and the way you kick is different.

“There are also studies around more injuries on synthetic pitches, more ACL injuries so I don't see the advantage to have artificial pitches. You can compare it with other sports like tennis. You have some guys who win Wimbledon but don't win another tournament because it is a really specific kind of surface and for me, it's the same.

"If tomorrow they say we don't play on the artificial pitch but on the parking lot then we gotta do that because only one thing is important and it is to win games. I'm not a fan in general because for me football needs to be played on grass. But I had this