Danny Rohl insists Rangers will go to Celtic Park on Saturday with belief after their 2-1 win over St Mirren took them to within six points of William Hill Premiership leaders Hearts and three behind the Hoops.
Midfielder Thelo Aasgaard scored in the 39th minute before centre-back Emmanuel Fernandez added a second in the 52nd minute at a frozen Ibrox.
Rangers keeper Jack Butland saved a penalty from Saints captain Marcus Fraser in the 75th minute before Buddies striker Mikael Mandron pulled a goal back but the home side held on and with Celtic losing 2-0 at Motherwell, the title race heated up.
Rohl said: “Our belief is there. When we look at the moment, except from the 2-1 defeat (at Hearts), we took a lot of points.
“We had some great performances, we had also some performances where not everything was good.
“Now we go with confidence. It’s a huge game, but we are prepared for this. I think this is what we want to see.
“In this game it’s important that we are strong. I think it’s important that the ref is strong in this game as well.
“If we do this, we will have a fantastic game.
“I think it was a good finish to the year and now we have hopefully a good start in the year.”
Asked if he could have any new faces for the trip to Parkhead, the former Sheffield Wednesday boss said: “I think we know the window is not easy, but we are on front foot.
“What it means at the end, let’s see. We cannot influence everything, but we are at the moment clear.
“We know that in some positions, we have to wait for the right timing.
“I see that we are really convinced of what we want to do.”
Buddies boss Stephen Robinson was left frustrated by the narrow defeat.
He said: “From 30 minutes onwards, I thought we were excellent.
“We had lots of chances, their goalkeeper was man of the match, we had two cleared off the line and we missed a penalty so it tells you the level of control and opportunities we had.
“The frustrating bit is we concede from two second-phase set-plays which we worked on and spoke about.
“Those fine details of doing your job right and those moments have probably cost us tonight. A large amount of frustration with that.
“I’ve got to take the positives out of it. The performance was excellent, as I say, from 30 minutes onwards. At the start of the game, we gave Rangers way, way too much respect.
“We didn’t press the way we usually do for some reason, but we got together at half-time and I thought the reaction and the character of the players was excellent.
“But ultimately, switching off twice has cost us, I don’t think Shamal (George) had many saves to make.”
