RANGERS striker Antonio Colak was speaking ahead of Sunday's Premiership encounter with St Johnstone after being crowned SPFL Player of the Month for October.

Here is everything he had to say.

Congratulations on your SPFL Premiership player of the month award. How does it feel to be recognised?

Yeah, it's a big thing for me. Especially after the short time I have been here at Rangers, First of all I need to thank all my teammates and all the staff who have helped me to come to this point, to get this award. To my fiance, my family as well who have prepared me in the best possible way so that I can focus on the most important things, to play and to score goals. It's a big award for me, it means a lot to me and it motivates me for more.

In terms of motivation, now that the Champions League is over, how important is it for you and your teammates to kick on domestically?

Yeah, we have now three games left before the World Cup and we want to get the maximum points from them. We have three trophies to win this season, we want to play like we did against Aberdeen which has to be our standard to perform at that level. This is what we will focus on now.

Could you describe why you think you have started so strongly in Scotland?

We are Rangers, we have to perform at that level. We want to take on our opponent in the best possible way so we have to always prepare. This is what the staff do really well (to help the players) before every game and we need to continue like this in the last three games to be dominant and to focus on our game.

I'm sure one of the attractions for you to come to Rangers was to play in the Champions League group stage. We know it has been a bit of a test, what has been the impact for you and your teammates in the dressing room on the whole experience?

As I stated before, I joined a group who have known each other for a long time and have won trophies together, as well as getting to the Europa League Final. They work really well together with good communication and I have added a small piece to that, having to adapt really fast. It helped me a lot that everybody was so kind, helping me so much that I only had to concentrate on training, working hard and scoring goals. Of course, as a person, I like to be positive and I like to help other guys as well even though I'm a new player.

You were recently named on the preliminary list for the Croatia World Cup squad, how much are you looking forward to continuing your good form this season to hopefully make the final squad?

This was a big target. Before I came to Rangers, I knew only my games for my club would allow me to reach that target. Now it's really close, I am in the preliminary squad and next week we will know if I go (to Qatar) or not. It is already a big honour to be there (in the provisional squad). I try in every game and every day to give everything in the hope that the national team coach will recognise me.

You have settled into Scottish football well with 14 goals, what is the biggest thing you have noticed about football in this country, particularly about playing teams like St Johnstone for Rangers?

It's really tough for me as a striker as usually there are three centre-backs trying to stop me from scoring, getting into a lot of duels and making it tough. I always try to think one step ahead, to take advantage of some situations and if I get the chance, I have to score. Sometimes you get more (chances), sometimes less but I always try to score.

What would it mean to you if you did make the final grouping for the Croatian World Cup squad?

To represent your country in such a big tournament, I think it’s one of the biggest things you can achieve as a footballer. Throughout my career as a young boy, I had some targets like playing in the Champions League, hearing the anthem before the game, playing for the national team and one of them is also to play in a big tournament. Now I’m really close. I don’t know if it’s now on me or not but the coach will decide what’s best for Croatia and for the team and I hope I can be a part of it because it would be like a dream come true for me.

Has the coach said anything to you in terms of how he’s monitoring your progress since you moved to Scotland?

Not that much but I know from the assistant coaches and the analysts that they’re following me and Borna. They’re looking for the players and they’ve seen me develop here and how I continue my good run and my goals and everything so they know what they will get with me. They know what qualities I have and I hope I can make it.

How do they announce the squad? Is it by telephone call or by text message?

I was never so close to being in a tournament like that. I think next Wednesday there will be a press conference and they will announce it.

Will you be checking your phone before that?

I will ask the coach if I can take my phone to training. No, we will see. I don’t know what time it will be, I just know it will be on the 9th of November.

Is being top scorer and winning the Golden Boot at the end of the season a big personal aim for you?

Yes, of course. I got it once in Croatia with 20 goals and I know how hard it is to achieve it. I’ve had a good start and for me, as a striker, it’s a big thing to win the Golden Boot because every striker wants this. For me, as a kid when I played in small tournaments I wanted to be the Golden Boot winner and now it’s the same. I’m always hungry for that and I’m hungry for trophies and whether it’s personally or for the team I hope we can win it all.

Did you always believe you could be right up at the top of the scoring charts?

Yes, of course. If you set high targets and you work hard for it then you can get to another level and this also makes me better as a player, as a striker and as a person. It’s not a surprise for me, maybe for other people but I work hard every day for it to achieve really big targets and goals.

Do you hope Alfredo Morelos stays and signs a new deal?

What he showed in the past, he’s scored so many goals to achieve big things and to have players like this in the squad is always important. We need to be competitive, we need a lot of strikers and a lot of players in every position. You see now with the team and how many injured players we have and this means a lot to be competitive in the Champions League and in the league and the cup. We want to play at the highest level and this means you need players like Alfredo. It will be important for a team like Rangers to keep a player like that but I cannot decide that. For me as a striker, of course, in every position, you need competitive players.

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How’s the mood in the dressing room after the defeat in midweek and is there a sense it maybe helps you focus on the league?

We said it from the beginning we have three domestic trophies we can win and we want to win them all. Of course, the period in the Champions League was hard but before we qualified against PSV and Union who are also qualifying for the next round of the Europa League. We showed our quality. We are a big team and we can compete. Unfortunately, it was not so successful in the group stage for us but we have to take it with us to make it better next year. Now we can focus on the domestic games which can be also good for us.

Was there a danger the European results could damage the domestic campaign?

For me personally, I hate losing so, of course, it affects you. For the other players it’s the same. You always play to win and if you lose then you think about it that evening and maybe the day after but then you need to focus on the next one. I try to manage this quite well and I think the boys as well. If you’re going up and down it’s always difficult to get up again so we want to keep the high now, to take the momentum and take this winning feeling again week by week. I think this will help the team and the whole club with the fans.

Why do you think it’s taken this long to put in a performance like we seen against Aberdeen and how do you make sure you get that performance in the next three games?

We always try to play in the best possible way. Every team is different and plays differently and you prepare differently for all the games. Aberdeen was not easy to get back from 1-0 but we showed our style of play, our running and all this power we had with the fans. They helped us a lot in this game. It didn’t take us this long as we had games before where we played really well. In every game, you have to keep the intensity. The intensity is the clue in the first step to have a successful game, this is the most important thing. We have to be intense and win the duels. In the Scottish league, it’s the most important thing to show who’s the man on the pitch. It doesn’t matter if it’s an away game or at home. We have to just focus on that and then focus on our game because we have high quality on the ball always and take all our chances we get. Even against Aberdeen we won 4-1 but could’ve scored more goals. You always have to look at what you can improve on for the next step in every game.