In what must have been one of the worst wins (in admittedly poor conditions) for Rangers in recent memory, a messy performance in Paisley still led to a big three points for Philippe Clement’s men, and, for now, a closure of the gap to just two points.

Ibrox Noise offers our ratings on a big if scrappy win:

Butland:

Made yet more big saves, none massively hard but they stopped the hosts getting the goal they craved. Consistency is Jack’s middle name. 8

Tavernier:

An invisible display from Tav, offered little in any sense, and his distribution was actually horrible. Defensively got his usual quota of contributions, but added nothing even if he sort of hit the bar at one point. 5

Goldson:

Was incredibly sluggish, even by his standards, and should have got a booking for a ridiculously bad tackle. Did absolutely nothing at the back at all and had the least possession of the ball for many a week. Dreadful. 4

Souttar:

Poor guy had to do everything, because his mate wasn’t, and offered 10 aerials won and 8 clearances. Basically he was the only defender putting the shift in. 8

Ridvan:

Defensively wasn’t really called on a lot, but was clean with what he did, and like Tavernier his passing was far from great. But he did offer a tonne of overlapping and tried to attack with gusto. We’re not totally sure why he was taken off. 7

Lundstram:

The conditions tried to kill him but he was still our best with the ball at his feet. Tried to make things happen as always, and then absolutely did with another worldie assist, this time for Dessers. Strong one again for Lunny. 8

Raskin:

Very poor again – some fans trying to give him some slack with the ‘needs games’ patter but strange how Sterling in the same position didn’t (despite coming in from the cold and not being match fit) and ended up December’s POTM. Raskin has been off form the whole season and his heart doesn’t look in it any more. Understandably hooked on 57 minutes. 3

Cantwell:

Absymal – offered absolutely zilch again, and we’ve got to the point we’re just waiting for him to leave the club now. We have no time for this charlatan any more, and we wonder if that’s another half time hooking that makes PC agree. 3

Wright:

Incredibly poor, offered next-to-nothing and was rightly withdrawn at half time. 4

Sterling:

We have NO idea why Clement did this with the defender/midfielder, he was absolutely lost as a LW, and for even more weird reasons the boss wouldn’t change it. This was just odd. We’re not blaming the boy for struggling badly being shunted into a totally alien position. 3

Dessers:

The lad is winning fans over, another brilliant goal and from the most hated player in blue only two weeks ago he’s now the toast of fans. We did tell you… 8

Subs:

Lawrence:

Rangers were immediately bright for a spell after his arrival, but he wasn’t able to impact the match overall. He’s better as a starter and even ended up booked. 5

McCausland:

Better in the pass than Wright, but incredibly even less involved (22 touches to Wright’s 30). Worked more defensively, but offered his usual slimline amount as an attacker. 5

Jack:

We were at a loss to understand why he was on for Raskin rather than Sterling being withdrawn to the Belgian’s DM slot. Tidy enough. 5

Matondo and Barisic were just token subs.

Manager:

Well this really was a weird one Mr Clement. The starting XI wasn’t great – we just didn’t like the bizarre use of Sterling, and the persisted use of Cantwell and Raskin, and none of it worked. He made weird subs, none of which worked either, and just refused to fix the failed Sterling wing experiment. This was, by a distance, Clement’s worst performance (despite the result) as Rangers manager, and he’s staggeringly lucky to have a brilliantly in-form Lunny and Dessers, not to mention Butland to bail him and us out. We really hope he learns from this absolute mess, even if the conditions didn’t help us much. 3, and only because we won.