'We spoke' - Rangers manager Danny Rohl has words with Youssef Chermiti over goal celebration

Much has been made of the £8million transfer fee - which could rise to £10m - paid by Rangers to sign Chermiti from Everton in the summer given the 21-year-old had not scored a senior goal in 29 months.

However, the Portugal Under-21 international took the first step towards justifying his status as Rangers’ most expensive recruit since Tore Andre Flo 25 years ago with a powerful 20-yard strike which put his side 3-1 up ensuring he broke his duck in his ninth appearance for the Ibrox club.

Chermiti's response to hitting the net was to make a talking gesture with his hands towards the Rangers fans in an apparent dig at his critics. And while the goal helped Rohl secure a much-needed victory on his home debut, the German coach felt compelled to address the negative connotation behind the celebration with the player afterwards.

"I think a celebration after a goal is always important but I think you have to understand how you celebrate sometimes," he said. "This is the normal part. I said this when I arrived, it's not just about improving players on the pitch, also off the pitch, so you have to understand. But we spoke about this and I think he knows what he has to do next time. Yeah, he was a little bit emotional but not more. For me it was more important that he scored.

"For a striker it's always important to score and after he scored on Sunday you can see that. Even today in training he had some good moments. We only did some finishing today as it was not possible to train too much only two days on from a game. But these are the small steps that I talked about. We’re making small steps as a group and small steps individually, but now it's about making the next step and I think this is very important to understand. We have to increase our limits as individual players but also as a group and if we do this then we are on a good way."

Rohl also detects a belief in the Rangers camp after returning Celtic boss Martin O’Neill claimed the Ibrox outfit were out of the Scottish Premiership title race. The Northern Irishman, who managed the Hoops with great success between 2000 and 2005, was sensationally installed as interim Celtic boss on Monday night after Brendan Rodgers resigned in the wake of a 3-1 defeat by Hearts at Tynecastle which left them eight points adrift of the league-leading Jambos.

However O’Neill, in his role as a talkSPORT pundit, declared that Rangers, who are five points behind Celtic following their 3-1 win over Kilmarnock on Sunday, “are no threat whatsoever, although the new manager (Rohl), I think he can maybe do something in time. But they are so far adrift, it’s untrue.”

Ahead of the trip to Hibs on Wednesday night, 36-year-old Rohl, who took over from the sacked Russell Martin at the start of last week and began with a 3-0 Europa league defeat by Brann in Norway last Thursday night, was informed of his new rival’s remarks and said: “I must say this morning, I sat here and looked to the faces of my players and I see there’s a big, big belief now.

“I think they feel it on the pitch. I have the feeling they believe at the moment in what we are doing, in the last days. Of course, after the big defeat, then we got a good reaction. I think this is also important for players and for us to see, after a setback, that you can come back. There was another setback during the game when it was 1-1 and you come through, and then you fully deserved the game.”