Gio van Bronckhorst was thrilled by a "perfect" 15 minutes as Rangers outmuscled Hearts at Tynecastle.
The Premiership champions weathered a lively start from their hosts before powering into a two-goal lead via Alfredo Morelos and Joe Aribo.
And they left Robbie Neilson 's team frustrated at the other end to claim a vital victory that opens up a seven point gap over Celtic - who play Motherwell later on Sunday - at the league summit.
Hearts were reduced to 10 men after the interval as Josh Ginnelly picked up a second booking - and Van Bronckhorst was equally pleased with how Rangers managed the game to a comfortable conclusion.
The Ibrox boss told Sky Sports: "It's a big win here, a difficult place to go - I said it before the game.
"The first minutes you could see what Hearts would bring, they started really well but we defended the pressure and made sure we made moments on the counter attack.
"We did perfectly in the first 15 minutes.
"It gave us a little bit of a confidence and the 2-0 was important, they also had a lot of chances in the beginning.
"We kept fighting as a team and worked together to get a result, especially in the second half. The game got quite physical so we were good in keeping the ball, especially when Hearts went down to 10 men.
"We knew we could control the game, only one bad pass from Calvin Bassey at the back gave them the chance to score but other than that we had control and dominated the last phase of the game."
Neilson had no complaints with Ginnelly's dismissal, admitting the 24-year-old got carried away in a clash with Borna Barisic.
He said: "I thought it was actually quite a good game, but that happens sometimes with referees.
"On a booking, he's let his emotions get to him. That killed the game from there, because at that point we're pushing to get a goal to get right back in the game and put them under pressure in the last 10-15 minutes.
"It was very disappointing from his perspective."
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