By Craig Rae
A first half blitz from Connor Goldson, Fashion Sakala and James Tavernier gave Rangers an unassailable lead at half time, and, whilst the second half performance was poor and the clean sheet lost, the 3 points are all that matter.
The manager was pleased with the performance and outcome but admits that the second half wasn’t great.
“We played really well first half there was a lot of energy in the team, we dropped off second half, and it was clear that (the game) took a lot out of Ryan Jack and Nico Raskin, they’ve not had much football of late and I thought when John Lundstram came on, we got it back (our rhythm) again after we started the second half quite poorly.”
The manager also said, ‘I thought the first half was about as dominant as you can be in a game’ which probably does sum up that performance. It was arguably the best half of football we have seen out with Tynecastle under the Beale regime, and the squad seem to be slowly but surely coming together.
Souttar Return
John Souttar made his long-awaited return from injury, getting a run out in the final moments and the manager was pleased for him.
“I would like to have given John a little bit more today, we can’t play him in the B team games so I’ve got to try and get him up to speed in training, he’s trained ever so well for a couple of weeks, the final I felt was too soon for him but today was an opportunity to give him a little bit more but the game didn’t allow me to. It’s important for him that he can stay fit now”.
Incredibly, this was Souttar’s competitive debut at Ibrox and hopefully he is someone we can see more of this season.
Sands Exit
James Sands was also a point of discussion, with the US international being sent back to New York City FC in his home country after a less than convincing loan spell.
Beale revealed that it was a mutual decision that came about as the start to the MLS season got closer and Sands wanted answers on his future.
“He came to speak to me about 4 weeks ago, he’s a midfielder who has had to play centre back for us and he’s done well. The MLS season was about to start, and he had some assurances from that end that he would be a big player for them and the question that he was throwing out was ‘are we going to take up the option’ – unfortunately we weren’t going to do that. Nothing against James, we had an agreement that because we only had two fit centre halves at the time that after the final he could go back. They’re decisions that I’m going to have to make”.
Cantwell
Todd Cantwell played only his second 90 minutes since signing from Norwich in January and the Englishman believes that he is getting up to speed with the rhythm of the squad. Asked if that was his best performance since his arrival, he said.
“Yeah probably, I just think that I’m growing into my role, I’m feeling fitter, match fit. Like I said you need to get those games in first and I feel that I’m now starting to come into my rhythm a little bit, so yeah, I enjoyed it.”
Whilst a routine 3-1 home win over Kilmarnock doesn’t get over the devastating loss of last week, it is another hurdle that this squad has overcome since Beale’s arrival. Earlier in the season we have seen one bad result turn into 2 or 3 on the bounce, so it is good to get that off the player’s back. All Rangers can do in terms of the league is keep winning and see what happens, they are certainly holding up their end of the deal.
