Giovanni van Bronckhorst is aiming to ensure Rangers are even more red-hot by the time they emerge from cold storage in three weeks.
The Dutchman was delighted to keep up his winning streak as Ibrox boss as Gers made it seven league victories on the spin since his arrival with a 2-0 St Mirren stroll.
Van Bronckhorst admitted his only disappointment was that they didn’t add to the goals scored by Scott Wright and Alfredo Morelos in the first half at Ibrox.
But he believes his players felt the benefit of a full week of training as he looks to stamp his style on the side.
And for Van Bronckhorst that extra time will be crucial as the Scottish Premiership takes a break after the shutdown was brought forward.
Rangers were against that move but the Light Blues boss will look to make the most of it after having little time with games coming thick and fast after Steven Gerrard’s shock departure.
Van Bronckhorst told Rangers TV: “It’s time to rest. We start in the New Year again so we have a good two weeks to prepare for the Aberdeen game.
“But also to get our message across even more to the players about the way we want to play against different systems and situations so we have time to get better.”
On the Saints win that restored their six-point lead at the top, he added: “We created a lot of chances and the scoreline needs to be more but I’m happy with the win, happy with the zero, and we can go into the break in the place we want to be.
“Of course it’s the last game before the break. I’m happy with the performance, I think it was very controlled.
“It was defensively very good. We didn’t give any chances away - only in the last 10, 15 minutes when we lost the ball a little bit too fast.
“We can have a good rest and start over again in two weeks. We worked hard on things we want to see, no matter which team we play, and the performance was very controlled.
“The movement and passing was good. We had to change our set up a little in the second half because they had a different system but the players reacted well and I’m really happy with that.
“We hit the post and had some chances. We could have scored some more but the intention was there for us to keep going and create chances and try to score more goals.
“In the end it didn’t happen for us in the second half. It’s difficult to find the spaces which are very limited but when you go ahead 1-0 with a set piece it’s very important.
“Sometimes you have to be a bit more patient and try to make them run a lot and create your own space.”
