Danny Rohl believes Rangers may not have battled to the “dirty” 2-1 win over Livingston at Ibrox before he took over as head coach – but admits improvement is required.
The 36-year-old German, who replaced Russell Martin in October, was without John Souttar, Derek Cornelius, Mikey Moore and Youssef Chermiti which allowed defender Emmanuel Fernandez to come in from the cold and he headed the Light Blues in front after nine minutes.
However, Livi striker Tete Yengi levelled after 18 minutes and it was a struggle for the home side until midfielder Mohamed Diomande scored the winner in the 78th minute to make it four league wins in a row for the first time in this troubled William Hill Premiership campaign.
Rohl said: “I think yesterday in the press conference I spoke about a dirty win, maybe today it was exactly this.
“I said to my team it was a hard-working victory but more than this, it’s three points.
“I wasn’t here a few weeks ago, but maybe a few weeks ago we wouldn’t win this game.
“There’s still space for improvements, which is a good part.
“Even now, two new centre-backs together today, this is also something we have to develop.
“They need game minutes, and they’ve done well in the first appearance since I’ve arrived. These are the small steps we have to grow together as a group.
“I know it was not a high-quality game from our side, but three points and this is most important.”
Livingston boss David Martindale claimed his side should have had a “stonewall” penalty at 1-1 when Yengi’s shot was blocked by the hand of Fernandez inside the Rangers box.
Referee Ross Hardie was not invited by VAR John Beaton to have a look at the pitchside monitor and Martindale claimed he was threatened with a red card when he tried to speak to the official.
He said: “I can’t believe that’s not a penalty.
“I can’t believe we don’t… well, part of me, I can believe we don’t get it, but it’s a stonewall penalty.
“I can’t keep going on like this. I don’t understand why it’s not a penalty, and I’m not the only manager.
“This will happen to Danny, no doubt, at some point. It happens to everyone.
“There’s some manager every week sitting moaning about VAR and blatant decisions. Then you get an apology.
“Apologies are not going to help me on Monday morning. Apologies are not going to help my group. Apologies are not going to give me a point to try and get us up the table. Apologies are not going to give me three points.
“I don’t think they understand what’s actually at stake and how much this means to managers and clubs. It’s just flippant. ‘I’ve got it wrong, sorry’.
“Move on to next week, there’s another three decisions that are wrong.
“I just don’t think we can keep going down this road. Something needs to change and it needs to change very, very quickly.”
