MICHAEL BEALE says he was delighted to prevail with three points from a tough venue as Rangers ran out 3-2 winners over Kilmarnock in the Scottish Premiership this evening.
The Light Blues showed their powers of recovery to bounce back from an early setback at Rugby Park, with a brace from Alfredo Morelos and a strike from Ryan Kent maintaining the Gers’ winning momentum in the league since the manager’s arrival.
Speaking to RangersTV after the triumph, Beale reflected on an eventful 90 minutes: “It was never going to be a beauty contest. I’ve never seen a good game on this surface and Kilmarnock made this game extremely tough. They were really physical in the duels and obviously put the ball into our defensive zone a lot.
“Early in the game, we didn’t stand up to it and we found ourselves a goal behind. I thought after it we recovered really well, we dominated the ball and scored a very good goal. At half-time it was about fixing one or two things. I thought we came out for the second half very, very well and scored an excellent second or third goal to put ourselves 3-1 ahead.
“It was then the same thing, we showed a little bit of anxiety towards the end of the game. It’s a thing that we need to iron out, giving away sloppy set pieces then not making the first contact.
“To be fair to the player, it’s a fantastic volley, but that was the first time they’ve been down there in the second half. We’ve missed numerous opportunities to extend our lead and I’m saying to the players we need to be more ruthless and, as a team, we need to be stronger to see the game out because otherwise at the end of the game you get a bit nervy.
“Overall, it was never going to be a beauty contest because of the surface and conditions, the most important thing was to get out of here with three points and we found a way to win again from coming from behind.”
It was the second time inside a week that Rangers have been forced to rally from a goal down and, although Beale admits that it’s an area of his side’s game which requires improvement, he praised the attacking quality of his team.
He continued: “We spoke about that at half time, can we actually do what we came here to do? For the first 25 minutes in the second half we did. We scored two more goals to go 3-1 up and I thought we could have gone and scored one or two more with the opportunities we had. The boy has had an excellent effort to make it 3-2 but that probably made the game a little bit closer than what it was in the stadium. It certainly made the last five minutes a bit more nervy than it should have been.
“The boys keep playing every three days, they’ve just played 120 minutes on a tough surface and we’ve came here tonight on the artificial surface and we win where nowhere else has really won this season – they’ve had one defeat in nine games here. It was a big win for us and onwards we go.
“The front three have been in fine form as of late. I thought Alfredo, Ryan and Fashion Jr. tonight, after playing for large periods at the weekend with two boys playing 120 minutes, the effort from them tonight is fantastic. On this tough surface, to get out of here with three points, I’m delighted.”