Philippe Clement will not allow complacency as his Rangers team aim to overtake leaders Celtic by beating struggling Ross County on Wednesday.

Second-bottom County, who are on a nine-game winless run, will be led by interim boss Don Cowie for the first time after Derek Adams’ recent exit.

“I don’t like it when you say teams are fragile,” Rangers boss Clement said.

“I think players always have their pride. Also, people get the chance to be coach suddenly – I had it also twice. I was interim when a coach was sacked. You’re super motivated and you give everything day and night.

“So we expect a tough game as always. We need to make the game, we need to break open the wall, we need to be really good with and without the ball and focus on that.”

Clement continues to play down the title race, saying he will take no notice of the league table on Wednesday night even if Rangers are victorious, but he says positive energy can “only be a good thing”.

“A few months ago, it was another kind of noise when the players came on the pitch,” the Belgian added. “They didn’t like that. This one, they like.”

Match stats

• Rangers have never lost in 23 previous meetings with Ross County in all competitions (W19 D4).
• Ross County have lost each of their last eight league trips to Rangers by an aggregate score of 25-5 since a 1-1 draw in February 2017 under Jim McIntyre.
• Rangers have won all eight of their home league games under Clement – this is the longest winning home start by a Scottish Premiership manager since Brendan Rodgers won his first 14 in charge of Celtic in 2016-17.
• Ross County are winless in 10 away league outings (D5 L5) – their longest such run in the Scottish Premiership since going 11 without victory on the road from September 2019 to February 2020.