MICHAEL Beale was delighted Rangers were able to round-off a positive week with victory over Raith Rovers this afternoon to set-up a Scottish Cup semi-final next month.
Connor Goldson and Scott Arfield were on target either side of an own goal in today’s 3-0 win against the Championship side at Ibrox.
Speaking to RangersTV at full time, Beale said: “We won 3-0 and we managed to get Todd [Cantwell] and Nico [Raskin] 90 minutes and it's the first time in a while they have had that.
“It is a clean sheet which we haven't had for a couple of games, and we are in a semi-final. It is the end of a big week, we have scored 10 goals and conceded one. It is three wins and another week where we can tick all the boxes and now we move to Motherwell next weekend.
“All the team can do is keep beating the teams in front of them. This week we have had a mixture, Kilmarnock came and tried to make it difficult, and we blew them away in the first-half.
“Hibs in midweek I thought we were absolutely fantastic, we played against a team that tried to face us head on and you could see how dangerous we could be in those situations and then today Raith Rovers tried to stay in the game for as long as possible.
“We have to face up to all these challenges and problems and we have just got to keep winning. We can't dictate what the other team do in the game we can only dictate ourselves and we won 3-0 today.”
On this afternoon’s match, Beale continued: “We had 18 corners so to score from a set-play you are hoping after that the game opens out a bit it didn't but for us. In and around the final third there were a lot of missed opportunities, a lot of ricochets not falling for us, our shooting could be better, and it is fair to say we can get more people in the box. That is why Scott Arfield is such an important guy to have in the squad because that is what he gives you he ghosts in there and he missed a chance and then he went and scored, and I am delighted for him on a personal level.”
Ridvan was introduced into action in the second-half for his first minutes since October, with John Souttar, Ianis Hagi and Scott Arfield all getting minutes on the pitch as they continue their return from recent injuries.
Beale was happy with the impact of the substitutes and believes his squad is continuing to get stronger each week.
He continued: “Scott Arfield has obviously been injured for a few weeks and came back in a couple of days before the final, so he is fighting back now. Ianis got some minutes, Ridvan his first appearance for a long while and Souttar as well.
“The squad is slowly but surely getting there. Those three guys Ianis, Ridvan and John Souttar we need to be a little bit patient with but they are getting up to full speed now and that will help us going into these last couple of months of the season.
“We have still got 10 league games and hopefully two more cup games to play so there's still a lot of football to come.”