‘More recognition would be nice’ – Dessers

Cyriel Dessers says he does “not have to answer” critics after netting what could prove to be a priceless equaliser in Rangers’ Champions League pursuit.

Despite scoring 22 goals in his debut campaign at Ibrox, the Nigeria forward has been a much-maligned figure throughout his time in Scotland.

It is a theme that has carried into the start of this season after the 29-year-old missed chances in Saturday’s goalless draw with Hearts and Tuesday’s first leg with Dynamo Kiev.

But Dessers kept a cool head to net a crucial 94th-minute leveller in Lublin and reacted to a dramatic finale by saying “it would be nice to get more recognition”.

“As a striker you have to believe,” he told BBC Scotland. “Even if it is an impossible ball or you don’t think it will fall.

“I knew it was the last ball into the box in the game, and that was the case. I was happy to be on the end of it.

“I don’t have to answer people, I’m just doing my job for the team, for the manager, and for myself. That’s the only thing that matters.

“It would be nice to get more recognition for what you do, but I get the recognition inside the building and that’s most important.”

Dessers recognises that “there are always reactions from the media” and a “small part” of the support, but the striker feels “a lot of love” from a “bigger part” of the fanbase.

There have been calls for Philippe Clement to upgrade on the Nigerian if he is to guide the Ibrox side to a Scottish Premiership title.

But Dessers’ last-gasp goal could provide his manager with much-needed funds to strengthen his attack if progression to the Champions League is secured.

“Cyriel kept pushing to get the goal,” Clement told BBC Scotland.

“He had a few chances that he finished well and the goalkeeper saved. He kept on believing and I’m happy for him that he scored.

“If you compare him to seven months ago, he does much more for the team. He’s only growing. That’s what we want.

“Maybe people have a perception of him, but I know that no defenders like to play against him.”

Rangers’ Mr Resilient strikes again

Tom English, BBC Scotland chief sports writers

When Cyriel Dessers timed his run to perfection and scored what might prove to be an enormously significant equaliser, the first instinct was to laugh.

Mr Resilient strikes again. The most written-off Rangers goalscorer in decades defies the odds once more.

Dessers continues to make Rangers fans lie down in a darkened room to ponder their feelings about him. Is he part of the solution or part of the problem? Does he have to stay or does he need to go?

This is the existential question of the era at Rangers. In the last two decades, at least, there cannot have been a Rangers striker who has scored so many and yet convinced so few. Winston Churchill might have had him in mind when talking about a riddle wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma.

Speaking to him ahead of the Scottish Cup final in May, he said that he felt like a “scapegoat” in his early, unhappy, months at the club. “I was still putting up my Ikea furniture or working out the settings on my television and people were already trying to write me out of the club, saying ‘you’re the worst player who ever played for Rangers’.

In the story of the last 20 years (excluding the wilderness years down the divisions) only Kris Boyd and Alfredo Morelos has scored more goals in open play in a single season than Dessers did in the last campaign. And Boyd only managed it once.

Dessers knows about the flak, he has heard the groans after the missed chances, but he keeps going.

A cross from the left from the terrific second-half substitute, Jefte, and another cross from the right from Vaclav Cerny and in ghosted Dessers. One touch and the last kick.

The approval rating went through the roof in that moment. How long it stays up there is debatable. The mantra you hear is that he’s not ‘Rangers class’. When they needed him in Poland, he was most certainly that.