Rangers midfielder Josh Windass believes the Ibrox side can still win the Premiership title, and that they won’t have to beat Celtic in all of their remaining three league fixtures to do so.
A lot has been made of the gap that currently exists between the clubs both on and off the pitch since Celtic earned their second win against their rivals this season in Sunday’s BetFred Cup semi-final.
While Windass recognises that Celtic fully deserved to win both of those games, he says that Rangers can make up ground elsewhere to stay in contention for the Premiership trophy.
“In retrospect, beating Celtic doesn’t win you the league," Windass said. "You would love to beat Celtic and the fans really want you to beat Celtic.
“But in the long stretch, beating Celtic four times doesn’t win you the Premiership. If we take care of business, keep picking up points, improve and close the gap on Celtic in the table, then we can challenge for the title.
“I have lost two now so I know what it feels like. There is nobody more than me in that dressing room who wants to win an Old Firm game now after losing two. It is not a good feeling but we will go into the next one and want to win it even more.
“It is still a while away on New Year’s Eve. We are just looking at St Johnstone on Wednesday night and that is the main focus.
“Aberdeen want to challenge for the title as well, there are a few teams who fancy themselves for it. If you are not challenging for the title, then there is no point in being here.
“Being a Rangers player, you have to try and win every game. It’s no different in the next couple against St Johnstone and Kilmarnock, especially with them both being at Ibrox.
“We will go into them hoping and expecting to win both of them. But we know it won’t be a walkover. We need to play to our maximum to pick up three points in both games.”
Following Windass’s reasoning, Celtic - along with others - will have to drop points along the way elsewhere while Rangers dramatically improve their own winning record from the first quarter of the season for the Ibrox club to get back in touch at the top of the league.
He is sure though that Rangers aren’t far away from finding the consistency levels that have so far eluded them since the start of the campaign.
“I think every team is going to drop points along the way,” he said. “It sounds obvious, but it is the team that drops the least points that will win the league. We have got to keep working hard every day and keep trying to pick up as many points as we can.
“We have got to go into every game now and maintain the performances from the league games before it. We were playing well in the league so we have to keep that going and hopefully the points gap between us and Celtic by the time we do play them isn’t that large and we can maybe close it then.”
While Windass isn’t yet ready to concede that usurping Celtic at the top of the table is beyond his side, he has also set a minimum target of European football for Rangers this season.
“As a Rangers player, you come here to play European football and that is what the lads want to do,” he said. “That is the minimum expectation. That comes with being second or third. We would love to win the league but European football is key to getting more money into the club and closing the gap.”
While Windass was pleased with some aspects of the team performance that Rangers produced against Celtic on Sunday, such as their pressing and organisation, he feels that his own performance while in possession was perhaps symptomatic of their biggest failing on the day.
“Personally I had quite a poor game on the ball,” he said. “I don’t think it was the occasion, I just didn’t have a good game. I don’t know why. It was my first game back from injury and you can’t play well every week.
“As many people have pointed out, Celtic have a bigger budget than us, so the so-called gap is quite difficult. We are working very hard each day to try and close it.
“You saw on Sunday that it was a tighter game. They still had the better of us, to be honest, but it was tighter and I do think we are starting to close the gap.
“How do you do that? Hard work, players improving. Celtic are going to improve as well, so we need to keep working hard and see what happens the next time we play them.
“After the game and conceding a goal that late, it was hard in the dressing room, especially with it being against Celtic and what happened in the last game.
“We got in at half time and we weren’t the better team in the first half, we got outplayed a bit. But the positive reaction was that it was still 0-0 and we defended well despite them having a lot of the ball. We needed to go out in the second half and cut out the mistakes. I felt we did that but the goal was a soft one and to concede that late was heartbreaking.”
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