GRAEME Murty claimed last night that his Rangers team had answered their critics with a dramatic injury-time victory over St. Johnstone at Ibrox.

Murty, who is in temporary charge following the departure of Mark Warburton last month, had overseen consecutive Ladbrokes Premiership defeats to Dundee and Inverness Caledonian Thistle.

It looked as if the Govan club were about to slump to a draw to their fifth-placed top flight rivals at home after they squandered a two goal lead in the last 16 minutes.

But Emerson Hyndman, the Bournemouth midfielder who is on loan to Rangers until the end of the season, netted a stunning goal in the first minute of injury-time to secure a 3-2 triumph.

The caretaker manager was pleased at the spirit which his team, who have been lambasted for their lack of fight in recent weeks, showed to record their first league win since January.

“There’s a lot of emotions at the moment but the main one is relief that a group of players who thoroughly deserved the three points came up with a win,” he said.

“They showed a little bit of the spirit we have been asking for so I’m relieved for them. They have had a lot of criticism of late and they could have gone under, but they came through it.

“It is a real easy stick to hit players with - that they don’t care, they are overpaid or transient at clubs and don’t care about the shirt. But their reaction along with the guys on the bench reveal that to be a lie. I’m really pleased for them.”

Asked if it was his last game in charge, the former Scotland defender replied: “I’ve got no idea, you’d have to ask the board.”

Rangers, who had gone in front through Barrie McKay and Martyn Waghorn, suffered a setback when Rob Kiernan was red carded by referee Kevin Clancy for a foul on Graham Cummins in the closing stages.

“My reaction was to fix it the problem,” said Murty. “When I have a moment will look at it but at the time Rob made the referee make a decision. He made that decision based on what we saw and we had to live with it. The players responded quite well.”

Rangers moved to within six points of second-placed Aberdeen and went eight points clear of Hearts with the St. Johnstone victory.

But Murty said: “We can’t control that. We had a conversation earlier about if we were going to mention it in the team talk, and all I said to the players was that it was about winning. By hook or by crook, they had to go and win the game.

“We can’t control what those guys are going to do or what Celtic are going to do, it’s a waste of time and a waste of energy looking at those things. We have to make sure our processes are right and for 75 per cent of the game we were really bright and really sharp at doing those.”

Tommy Wright, the St. Johnstone manager, was pleased at how his players performed after their 2-0 home defeat to Kilmarnock at the weekend and how got back on level terms.

But Wright, who is one of the names to be linked with the vacant position at Ibrox, was angry at the Perth club’s defending at Hyndman’s goal.

“There was a lot of disappointment on Saturday night,” he said. “This is a different kind of disappointment. I thought after Saturday’s disappointment we responded well. We showed a lot of character. They showed quality to get back into the game.

“But it’s a poor goal to concede late on. It doesn’t matter if they have 10 or 11 on the pitch at that stage. We should have been defending better.”