Olwethu Makhanya claims there will be more to come from Rangers when they start capitalising at the top end of the pitch.
Rangers went into the international break after back-to-back wins over Celtic, a 3-0 Premier Sports Cup victory at Ibrox followed by a 1-0 William Hill Premiership win at Parkhead on Sunday.
After an unconvincing start to Derek McInnes’ tenure as boss, where the Light Blues were knocked out of two European competitions in the qualifying stages, the Gers have moved to two points behind Celtic at the top of the table.
Rangers have won six in a row in all competitions, losing just one goal in the process but four of those wins have been by a single goal.
The 22-year-old South Africa centre-back, who signed in the summer from MLS side Philadelphia Union on a four-year deal with the option for an additional year for a reported fee of around £3million, said: “I definitely feel there’s more to come from this team.
“The importance of clean sheets, this is a conversation we always have with our attacking players that, you know what, we’re going to do a job in the back, and we trust you guys to create and score chances.
“And over the few games, we’ve created chances, taking some and not able to take some. So we are just hoping that, as time goes on, we will get more clinical.
“It’s going to be really important for us to stay together.
“And it’s something that we’ve been working very hard on as a team, spending more time together, understanding each other, and I think it shows in the games, the willingness to fight, and we trust each other.”
Makhanya, while not downplaying rare back-to-back wins over Celtic, insists there is a long way to go before it becomes any more significant.
He said: “It’s a really good feeling. Going there, we knew it was going to be a difficult game, especially after last week.
“So everyone going there was expecting a really difficult game. We had to be 100% focussed from the start, and that’s exactly what we did there.
“It’s a really long season, so we’re just taking one game at a time. It’s been a good run, but there’s more work to do.”
Due to a ticket allocation spat between the two clubs, there were only Celtic fans inside the stadium.
Makhanya praised the huge contingent of Rangers fans who turned up at Ibrox early on Sunday morning to cheer their team on their way to the east end of the city.
He said: “As soon as we came out of Ibrox, there was fans outside. I don’t want to lie, when I saw them cheering and all that, it really fired us up.”
