MICHAEL BEALE says he was pleased with the response of his Rangers side in the second half as they produced an emphatic 5-2 victory over St. Mirren in the Scottish Premiership at Ibrox this afternoon.
The Light Blues were twice pegged back by the visitors, the second of which arrived midway through the second half, before netting three times inside the final ten minutes to take the game away from the Paisley side and seal all three points.
Speaking to RangersTV after the match, Beale said he challenged his players to up their performance levels during the interval: "I thought we started the first half quite well and we scored a very good team goal. There were about 15-16 passes, lovely interplay between Malik [Tillman], Alfredo [Morelos] and Todd [Cantwell].
"It's nice to see Todd get in there with a goal, he got a goal and an assist today, and it was another positive performance from him. I thought we were a bit sloppy after that and we weren't clinical enough in the final third. I was upset at half-time and I got into the team a little bit. We go and score in the second half then shoot ourselves in the foot, but after that, with the change of system and the substitutes coming on, the last couple of goals were really nice team goals.
"By the end of the game we had them in a good place and we were asking about shifting the play and holding our position. We had the ball for a long time and I believe it was 60 passes, which is rare to score a goal like that. It was a lovely run by Todd at the end of it and that's what Scott Arfield has made his career on; it was a cheeky little finish when he got in. We ended the game well."
Todd Cantwell continued his impressive start to life at Ibrox by grabbing a goal and two assists, while Beale was also pleased at the impact of his substitutes as Rabbi Matondo made his return from injury and Scott Arfield rounded off the scoring.
He continued: "Todd scored a good first goal and he obviously gets an assist. He's enjoying his football, but I'm going to stay on him because I know there's more to come. He's come here and I think he can be a big player for us moving forward. I'm demanding more and more each day, and if Todd keeps reacting, he'll go on to be a very good Rangers player in the future.
"[Matondo] has had a tough time since I came here, similar to John Souttar, because he hasn't been able to show what he can do. John was very strong today in his performance. Rabbi came on, and it can be quite an unforgiving crowd at times, you need something to give you a boost and he picked out Alfredo very well and it was a good finish from the Buff."