Beale: Squad Must Maintain The Standards

MICHAEL Beale insists Rangers must maintain the standards shown in their 4-1 victory over Hibernian in midweek as they host Raith Rovers in the Scottish Cup quarter-final on Sunday afternoon.

The Light Blues produced a strong performance to overcome the Edinburgh side in league action on Wednesday evening and have underlined their attacking prowess by netting seven goals in their last two games.

Speaking to the media ahead of this weekend's cup clash at Ibrox, Beale said: "Going into the game at Hibs, it's fair that the outside observers thought it would be an interesting evening for us. We performed ever so well on the night, but it's just three points and I want nothing less in terms of the standard of performance this weekend. It will be a completely different challenge.

"Every game that we're involved in, we're working in training to grow and evolve in different ways. You have saw it go well, like in midweek, and in other moments it's been a bit indifferent. We're focussed on the work and where we're going. In the short-term future, there's the league and Scottish Cup. Every game counts here. We're in a really privileged position and every time we play, we need to uphold that."

Scottish Championship outfit Raith Rovers are the visitors to Ibrox in the last eight of the competition, and Beale insists that his side require no added motivation given their current status as holders of the Scottish Cup.

He continued: "What counts is that we have a quarter-final this weekend at home. A home draw in the quarter-final is a favourable draw for Rangers, and we need to make sure that we're at our best and get ourselves back to Hampden for a semi-final. We have to be focused on retaining our trophy.

"We won the trophy last year so there's been an extra focus for this competition from back in pre-season. It's a trophy we want to retain and it's the last game of this season so we want to get back to Hampden, firstly for the semi-final, and then push on to the final. Ultimately, our aim is to win the competition and that's really important for us. It's important that the group continue to show improvement.

"They [Raith Rovers] have lost only once in ten games. They're in good form and it was their previous game that they lost so that could be motivation for them this weekend. They beat Motherwell in the last round so the warning is there for us."


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