Philippe Clement has Rangers plan to boost the goal difference as scoring for fun the key to catching Celtic

Fizzing Philippe Clement has blasted back at Brendan Rodgers as he accused the Celtic of boss of disrespecting his Rangers side.

The big Belgian has been left angered by his Old Firm rival after the Parkhead gaffer claimed Celtic would be looking to have “a bit of fun” when the sides square up for next week’s crucial derby clash. Hitting back at those comments, Clement - who watched his side come from a goal down to beat Kilmarnock 4-1 at Ibrox - raged: “That it is something that I would never say about an opponent. But OK, we will see. It’s not really respectful towards my team. That is what I think. So I will never say things like that about an opponent.”

Gers’ win means they will cross the city trailing their derby foes by three points with three games to play. But they’re also playing catch-up when it comes to goal difference, having missed a string of chances to eat into the Hoops’ superior five-goal advantage. “Frustration is a bad word if you score four goals,” said Clement after seeing Fabio Silva, Ben Davies, Tom Lawrence and John Souttar respond against 10-man Killie after James Tavernier’s first-half OG and penalty miss. Of course you want more goals like any manager.

"But I know also that teams struggle against a team of 10 who are all defending to create these opportunities. So in that way we did a lot of things good and scored good goals. We missed a penalty and it should have been five. Efficiency is never perfect.

“You have maybe one or two games in your career as a manager where every chance is a goal. I didn’t have this moment yet, so I am hoping maybe next week or the next couple of months it will happen once.”

Asked if he’d discussed goal difference with his squad, the Ibrox gaffer said: “I think it