Cyriel Dessers embracing pressure of playing for Rangers

The 29-year-old Nigeria international has been trying to convince Gers fans of his worth since joining the Ibrox outfit from Italian club Cremonese last summer for a reported fee of around £4.3million.

Hearing the travelling fans singing his name was music to his ears after he came off the bench against Hibernian at Easter Road on Wednesday night to score the third goal in a 3-0 win, adding to first-half strikes from left-back Ridvan Yilmaz and midfielder Todd Cantwell.

It was Dessers’ 11th goal of the campaign and the win took Philippe Clement’s side to within five points of league leaders Celtic with a game in hand.

“The pressure is always there at Rangers,” said the former Heracles Almelo, Genk and Feyenoord attacker.

“It was there at the beginning.

“I spoke about it with other people, at a certain point you have to embrace the pressure otherwise it kills you.

“I think that’s what happened with me in the last months.

“You have to appreciate it. I played with pressure at other clubs. I played at clubs where it doesn’t matter so much if you draw a game or lose a game.

“But you don’t want that. You want the pressure, you want people who are committed to the club, who care about the club.

“I like it and I think we should all embrace it.

“There’s definitely more to come from me. I have been growing in the last months, especially since the new gaffer came.

“You can see I am growing in my stats and my performances.

“But I think there is still more to come and I hope I can show it in the next weeks and months.”

Rangers fans regaled Dessers with “Nice One Cyriel”, a play on the “Nice One Cyril’ song most associated with Cyril Knowles, who played for Tottenham.

He said: “It’s not the first time they sang my name, it happened already at Ibrox.

“But obviously it’s a good feeling to hear this, to make them happy with a goal and a big win.

“I was pleased. What comes before the goal was something we practise a lot during the week where we cover the ball to play the first ball forward.

“Rabbi (Matondo) did it well. I got into the box and the shot had to move fast because the defender and goalkeeper were coming.

“I saw them from the corner of my eye. I think it was instinct from a striker to not kick it hard.

“It was a really slow ball, it was a little tight. But I was happy it went in.”