Sunday 1 November 2015 16:40, UK
Alan Stubbs believes his Hibs players backed up their pre-match confidence they could beat Rangers in the right way with their 2-1 win at Easter Road.
The Edinburgh side were under pressure for large spells of their Scottish Championship fixture, particularly in the second half after Lee Wallace's deflected shot levelled the scores.
They did enough to win, however, with Paul Hanlon's header 17 minutes from the end securing victory after Jason Cummings' 11th goal of the season early in the contest.
Stubbs has seen his team lose twice to Rangers this season but still felt they were capable of ending Mark Warburton's team's long winning run in the second tier.
Their performance was gritty as they had to defend deep and Stubbs was happy with a result which sees Hibs close the gap at the top of the table to five points.
He refuted the suggestion the title race would have ended if his men had lost - and now has reinforced faith his players can catch their rivals.
Stubbs told Sky Sports: "It's certainly on. I think it was on no matter what the result was. We've certainly given ourselves a foothold now to keep chasing them.
"We're not going to get carried away. This club should be winning big games and we've done that now.
"We're starting to do it consistently and the improvement is there for everyone to see. The lads deserve all the credit they should get tonight.
"It was an unbelievable win for us. Sometimes in football you have to back up your confidence (from) before the game.
"We were confident we could get a result. We knew it was going to be a difficult game because Rangers are a good team but we know we're a good team as well.
"We've managed to cut the deficit to five. They've had a fantastic start and to be only five points ahead of your closest rivals after such an unbelievable start tells you how well we've done."
Rangers dominated for large spells and hit the woodwork twice after Wallace struck but couldn't take anything from the game and Warburton admits they must be more ruthless.
He said: "I think we'll play a lot worse than that this season and come away with three points. I've just seen the stats and we had 65 per cent possession. Once we got our first goal then very respectfully, there was one team in it.
"But we've got to take our chances - hitting the bar, hitting the post, cleared off the line, etc. We've got to put the game beyond doubt."
