Interim boss Barry Ferguson described Cyriel Dessers as “a joy to work with” after the Rangers striker eventually found the net in stoppage time to clinch Rangers a 4-3 William Hill Premiership win at Dundee.
Dark Blues striker Simon Murray scored after only two minutes and home captain Joe Shaughnessy added a second in the 19th minute before he put through his own goal just before the break to give the visitors a lifeline.
Dessers, making his 100th competitive appearance for Rangers, missed a series of chances before and after Scott Tiffoney made it 3-1 in the 62nd minute.
The visitors responded and goals from skipper James Tavernier and substitute Tom Lawrence levelled the match before the 30-year-old Nigeria international lifted the ball over Dundee goalkeeper Trevor Carson in the third of five added minutes for his 23rd goal of the season.
Ferguson was unhappy with aspects of the Rangers performance, saying: “It’s a brilliant three points but overall, certainly the first half, we were miles off it”.
He was pleased with Dessers, however. “You have to give the goalkeeper credit, he made some really good saves,” said Ferguson.
“But one thing about the big man, he has been a joy to work with, and he is a brilliant worker. Brilliant listener. He wants to improve even at his age.
“He puts himself in brilliant positions, he can get frustrated and start feeling sorry for himself, but he keeps going.
“He got his reward with the winner.
“Even before I took the job I always said the big guy would keep going. If he got criticism from fans, the media, the big man just rolls his sleeves up.
“I didn’t think it would affect him and it never affected him. He kept going. If you have that type of character then you get your rewards in the end.”
Former Rangers skipper Ferguson was in no mood to sugarcoat his side’s performance.
He said: “You can see in my face it’s frustration, I saw so many old, bad habits come in.
“I had to make a couple of changes at half-time, I had to change the shape of the team from a three to a four to try to kick-start us basically.
“Second half was more like it but we were giving too many opportunities and easy goals away. We were sloppy at times.
“I said to them after it, there’s a lot of work needs to happen this week.
“We need to sit down, go through things and work hard on the training ground because there were a lot of things I didn’t like.
“But one thing about my players is they never give in.
“This has been labelled at them for a long time not but I think five or six weeks ago, Rangers come away with nothing.”
Dundee boss Tony Docherty could barely believe his side had lost the game and they remain second bottom, five points ahead of St Johnstone.
He said: “The overriding emotion is huge disappointment. I can’t focus on anything but the fact we’ve lost a game we should never lose.
“The expected goals for us was 2.8, Rangers was 2.4 and we had numerous chances.
“It tells its own story that we are third in the league for goals scored but bottom of the league for goals conceded.
“At 3-3 Simon Murray goes through and I think he’s scored the winner. Then we’re picking the ball out of our own net and losing 4-3.
“It’s really hard to take. Three goals should be enough to win a game.”
