Rangers midfielder Dan Neil has stated that the manner in which his team secures points is secondary to the crucial outcome of achieving wins, particularly as the club gains momentum in its title challenge. Neil scored the second goal in Rangers' recent victory over St Mirren, extending the team's unbeaten streak to 12 matches across all competitions.
Neil acknowledged that while the team aims for more dominant performances, finding a way to win is the most important aspect at this stage of the season. "I think every good team just finds a way to win," Neil said. "Obviously, we’d like to win by four or five goals every single week but unfortunately that’s just not football. I do think it’s an area that we can improve on."
He highlighted the importance of closing out games when holding a lead, noting that too many matches this season have been unnecessarily nervy due to failing to secure a second goal. "There’s been too many games this year where maybe we don’t get that second goal and it’s a bit nervy. Teams get a little bit of confidence off that and the momentum shifts," he explained. "I think it’s definitely something that we can improve on, putting teams to bed when we do go 1-0 up and go 1-0 up early doors when we’re creating chances. But at the same time, finding a way to win is the most important way and whether that’s 1-0 or 5-0, at the end of the day it’s three points."
The win against St Mirren was particularly important for Rangers to halt a recent trend of dropping points in away matches, following draws at Dundee and Hearts. Neil expressed relief that the team secured a victory before the international break.
"The last two away results and performances really haven’t been us," Neil commented. "It was important that we didn’t have another one of them going into the break and have it lingering over us. Everyone played their part in making it a comfortable result."
He added that away games in their league are challenging, but the team's mentality is strong. "Coming away from home in any league is tough, but especially this league. It’s important that the mentality of the group is right, which it is, and I think you’ve seen that on Saturday night. It was important to put that hoodoo of those two results behind us and make sure that we win the game. I think there was some good football played for the majority of the game and we also dug in when we had to. That’s credit to every single player in that dressing room."