Philippe Clement was delighted with his Rangers players as they answered the several post-winter break questions he posed to them. 

The Ibrox side strolled to a comfortable 3-0 win in Edinburgh as Nick Montgomery’s His team were cast aside on their own patch. Rivan Yilmaz and Todd Cantwell scored in the first half, while substitute Cyriel Dessers added a third to round off the evening after the break. 

The manager admits returning to league action after a winter break can pose threats due to rustiness or a lack of concentration.  

However, there was none of that as Rangers closed the gap on Celtic to five points at the summit of the Premiership, which pleased the Belgian no end. 

“It was a well-deserved victory,” the 49-year-old told BBC Sportsound. “It was what I wanted to see. Hibs is a difficult place to come, they’re really good on the ball and they have a lot of quality in the building.  

“The first task was to work really hard without the ball, like the team did, and secondly with the ball we did the right things. We scored three good goals, or four but for being a few centimetres offside.  

“It’s a pleasing evening. It’s always dangerous after a winter break to see how the team comes back. Will the team be hungry? Will they be ready? Will they recognise everything? Will they make good decisions on the field? Did they forget something in the things that we are working on? 

“They were good against Dumbarton in really difficult circumstances and they were good today. We have a few coming back from injury. We have Fabio [Silva] who didn’t play many minutes in the first half of the season and the rest of the team can also grow physically. The stronger we will get with a bigger squad, the better we will play and the more points we will get."

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Cantwell was taken off at half time after appearing to struggle with a niggle before he scored.  

Clement addressed his situation: “He had a small muscle injury and we don’t want to take a risk with players if there are really hungry players on the bench. 

“That’s been our strength in the last three months. Whoever is playing in whatever position, everybody is doing the job for the team. Players coming off the bench, making an impact on the game.  

“It’s impossible to play every few days for 90 minutes with the same players. So, that needs to continue.”